Last Friday, Gus Atkinson was presented with his Surrey county cap by Alec Stewart on the grass outside the Mickey Stewart pavilion at the Oval. Atkinson accepted his new cap with its Surrey monogram (alongside his new monogrammed jumper) in his usual easy going way, but it is a ceremony taken very seriously by Stewart – who does not dole out county caps like cheap trinkets.
The exact criteria for winning a county cap (as opposed to a playing cap given on debut), float around somewhere in the ether but the ingredients seem to be two parts being an established and automatic selection, one part long service and one part whether Stewart feels the time is right.
