Mark Ramprakash

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mark Ramprakash England (Eng)
Batting style	Right-hand bat
Bowling type	Right-arm offbreak
	Tests	ODIs
Matches	52	18
Runs scored	2350	376
Batting average	27.32	26.85
100s/50s	2/12	-/1
Top score	154	51
Balls bowled	895	132
Wickets	4	4
Bowling average	119.25	27.00
5 wickets in innings	-	-
10 wickets in match	-	N/A
Best bowling	1/2	3/28
Catches/stumpings	39/-	8/-
As of 1 January 2006 Source: Cricinfo.com

Mark Ravin Ramprakash (born 5 September 1969 in Bushey, Hertfordshire) to a Guyanese Asian father and an English mother, is an English cricketer.

He went to Gayton High School, and then to Harrow Weald Sixth Form College and first made his name for Middlesex before playing for England. While he is a major force in domestic cricket, in international cricket he failed to live up to his early promise and never secured a place as a fixture in the England team ^[1]. Ramprakash and Nasser Hussain were the two leading English half-Asian cricketers of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Test career 1.2 Move to Surrey 1.3 2006 season 2 Personal life 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Career

Ramprakash showed early promise aged just 17, scoring 63 not out in his first match against Yorkshire, and top-scoring with 71 in his second match against Essex at Chelmsford in 1987 (he was still a student at Harrow Weald Sixth Form College at the time). He scored his first first-class century at Headingley against Yorkshire in 1989, and captained the England U-19 team. He came to national prominence when, at the age of only 18, he won the man-of-the match award in the 1988 NatWest Trophy Final. His innings of 56 was instrumental in Middlesex beating Worcestershire.

[edit] Test career

Ramprakash was selected for his first Test match for England against the West Indies at Headingley in 1991. This was the same game in which Graeme Hick made his England debut, and like Hick, he struggled to impress producing a series of scores in the 20s. He was dropped in 1992 after a number of poor performances. However, his consistent heavy scoring in county cricket meant that he was always on the fringes of selection.

He was recalled to the England team for the final Test of the 1993 Ashes series. With Australia already 4-0 up it was a dead rubber, but he produced his first substantial innings for England by scoring 64 to help the team grab a consolation victory. This booked him a place on the subsequent tour of the West Indies. However, another string of low scores meant he was dropped and out of the selectors' plans. Ramprakash was not selected in the touring party for the 1994-95 Ashes series, but was chosen as vice-captain for the England A tour to India. However, an injury to Graeme Hick meant that he was flown out to play in the final Ashes Test scoring a useful 72. He was in-and-out of the team over the next few years, but continued to score heavily for Middlesex.

A breakthrough of sorts came in the 1997-98 Test series against the West Indies when he scored 154 not out in the 5th Test in Barbados. It was his first Test century and it earned him regular selection for the England team for the next few years. While he scored a number of fifties against various teams (notably Australia), he was only able to add one more century to his tally - 133 against Australia at the The Oval in the 2001 Ashes series. He was not picked again after England's tour of New Zealand in March 2002.

Career record	First-class	List A
Matches	386	368
Runs scored	28,633	11,739
Batting average	51.40	39.13
100s/50s	87/130	12/77
Top score	301*	147*
Balls bowled	4,165	1,734
Wickets	34	46
Bowling average	64.05	29.43
5 wickets in innings	0	1
10 wickets in match	0	N/A
Best Bowling	3-32	5-38
Catches/Stumpings	222/0	124/0
As of September 26, 2006 Source: [1] Edit this template

[edit] Move to Surrey

In 2001, with Middlesex struggling in the second division of the County Championship, he joined Surrey in order to play first-division cricket. He became the first man to captain both Middlesex and Surrey when he stood in for Mark Butcher at the start of the 2005 English cricket season. With Butcher not recovering until the middle of August, Ramprakash remained captain for most of the season. The move to Surrey, which upset many Middlesex members, backfired in September 2005. This had been a miserable season for Surrey, during which the county was docked eight Championship points for ball tampering (while Ramprakash was captain). In the final Championship game, Surrey's relegation was confirmed: the game was ironically against Middlesex, who were also in danger of relegation. After Surrey had conceded the point which sent them down, Ramprakash gained personal consolation by hitting 252, sharing a county record fifth-wicket partnership of 318 with Azhar Mahmood (who scored 204 not out) as Surrey made 686 for five declared and won by an innings and 39 runs.

In the 2003 season, he became the first player to have scored a century against all 18 county teams. He completed the set with a century against his former county Middlesex. Only Carl Hooper and Chris Adams have since achieved this feat.^[2]

[edit] 2006 season

In the 2006 season, Ramprakash, relieved of the captaincy, enjoyed outstanding form, making a career-best 292 against Gloucestershire in May, then improving that with 301 not out against Northamptonshire in early August. Later that month against Worcestershire he made 196 in the first innings, in the process passing 2,000 runs in first-class cricket for the summer in only his 20th innings (a record^[3]). Ramprakash, the leading run scorer in 2006, was the first man to score 2,000 runs in a season since the Australian Mike Hussey in 2001, and the first Englishman to do it since Ramprakash himself back in 1995. He ended with 2,278 runs at an average of 103.54, becoming only the sixth man to average over one hundred in an English season, given a criterion of eight completed first-class innings. ^{[4] [5]} This performance was instrumental in gaining Surrey promotion back into the first division. His outstanding form even led some commentators to say that the England selectors should consider him for that winter's Ashes tour: Mike Selvey called him "the best technician of his generation with a good record in trying circumstances in Australia" and said that he should be considered as a possible replacement for Marcus Trescothick. ^[6] He was not, however, chosen. His 2006 form also won him the Professional Cricketers' Association Player of the Year award ^[7].

[edit] Personal life

Married to Vandana, the couple first fell for each other at a chance meeting in 1988. Ramprakash was at a cricket function in North West London while Vandana was at a party downstairs. Three years later Mark popped the question, and they married in 1993. The couple have two daughters, Cara (born 1997 and Anya (born 2002), and the the family live in Harrow, North London.

He is currently taking part in BBC's Strictly Come Dancing He is partnered with Karen Hardy^[5]. He told the Sunday Mirror in interview: "The best thing about not playing on the England team anymore is the extra time I get to spend with my family. I do the school run every day. My two daughters really wanted me to take part on Strictly Come Dancing because they were hooked on last year's show. So I did it for them and my wife."

During the later stages of "Strictly Come Dancing", it emerged that Ramprakash had been having an affair with officer worker and mother of one Sadia Saleem, 27. The couple met when Ramrakash was playing away for Surrey in Cardiff, and had turned into a love affair. Ramprakash broke off the relationship a few months before starting training for "Strictly Come Dancing" and had told his wife, but Saleem insisted on another chance before turning to the tabloid newspapers^[8]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Mark Ramprakash profile at Cricinfo
• Cricket Archive
• Surrey CCC player profile