It was just over 20 years ago that Surrey’s Ed Giddins and Nadeem Shahid spent the first half of the off-season getting needles in their socks flogging Christmas trees at Wandsworth roundabout. Times have changed rather rapidly since then. Gone are the six months of empty schedules and emptier pockets. Nearly all players are on full-time contracts with their counties and not many of Surrey’s Championship-winning squad are hanging around to pull crackers with Alec Stewart over the mince pies.
Surrey’s England players are doing England things, while Ben Geddes, Josh Blake, Tom Lawes and Cam Steel are playing club cricket in Australia. Gus Atkinson is plying his trade in the Abu Dhabi T10 and Chris Jordan is rolling out for the Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash. Surrey are also sending out a handful of their youngsters – Conor McKerr, Nick Kimber, Gus Atkinson and Nathan Barnwell – to be net bowlers in the new UAE T20 competition at the beginning of next year. Dan Worrall breaks the mould, going back to Australia to continue his master’s degree in applied finance.
