End of an Era

[fredfertang]

Can't say I always liked him, in fact he was an obnoxious **** when he started out, but with Mark Ramprakash's retirement the last man left who played First Class cricket in my Dad's lifetime has retired so this is a poignant announcement for me. And as the years passed I became a great fan of Ramps - such a shame he couldn't go out on a higher note but not even he could deny Anno Domini

 

[BoyBrumby]

Probably the last man who'll ever make 100 first class tons too.

Seems slightly odd to say of a man who has amassed so many runs that he's an unfulfilled talent, but his lack of test success can't be ignored.

 

[stumpski]

As with Hick, all the talk will be that he couldn't hack it at the top level, but I have plenty of good memories of Ramps to dwell on - not least seeing him make his highest score of 301. He never completely mellowed in the autumn of his career did he - regular reports of 'Red Ramps' right up to the end.

Lad could dance a bit as well, I gather.

 

[Jarquis]

Rapid decline this season is somewhat saddening as is the fact he never truly made it at Test level. Would've been overjoyed if he'd gotten the nod for the final Test in the 2009 Ashes but hey, picking Trott turned out ok.

His country record is almost unrivalled but since he moved to Surrey it most certainly is. Basically 16000 runs at an average of 68. Passed 50 in 120 out 264 innings. Just ludicrous.

 

[Viscount Tom]

Yeah had a horrific start to this season and a pretty poor one last year. Didn't do himself any favours this year by blaming the pitches and calling them poor while other batsmen were still scoring runs on them.

 

[wpdavid]

Kind of pulls up the gangway into a byegone age. I vaguely remember when there was talk of an England recall a few years ago, there was some discussion about how few players could link us from the current test scene to the first ever test. It was less than you'd think - with Ramps having played against Viv Richards, who had played against Brian Close, which takes us back to 1948, etc, etc.

Simply having played county cricket in the 1980s makes him something of a relic. In the end, you'd have to say he was born about 15 years too soon. Under a more sympathetic regime, surely he would have done very much better. On the other hand, I wish he'd retired a couple of years earlier.

EDIT
Can still be done quite quickly actually. SRT played against Imran, who played against Colin Cowdrey, who played with Len Hutton, who played against Constantine, who played against Rhodes, who played with WG Grace, who played against Jack Blackham, who kept wicket for Australia in the first ever test match.

 

[Pothas]

I think the last cricketer to retire who started playing county cricket before I was born and certainly the last of the Englnd teams that I first remember to retire.

Anyway Ramps (along with Athers) was probably my favourite batsman when I was young, prepared me well for disappointment as a sports fan.

 

[Furball]

With Ramprakash retired who's the oldest player in terms of career length now on the circuit?

 

[fredfertang]

With Ramprakash retired who's the oldest player in terms of career length now on the circuit?

Robert Croft would be my guess

 

[BoyBrumby]

Robert Croft would be my guess

As Crofty was born (just about) in the 70s, does that mean Ramps was our last activel playing link to the 60s too?

Really is a "Cats in the Cradle" retirement.

 

[stumpski]

After Croft Glen Chapple I'd guess, f-c debut 1992.

Murray Goodwin is older, but he's only been playing regular county cricket for about 10 years.

 

[wpdavid]

After Croft Glen Chapple I'd guess, f-c debut 1992.

Is Ally brown still playing for Notts? He must have made his FC debut in the early 1990s

 

[BoyBrumby]

Is Ally brown still playing for Notts? He must have made his FC debut in the early 1990s

Knocked it on the head at the end of last summer, I believe.

Like Ramps he spent a fair bit of his valedictory season in the stiffs, so I suspect Anno Domini was knocking on his door quite loudly too.

 

[Flem274*]

Kind of pulls up the gangway into a byegone age. I vaguely remember when there was talk of an England recall a few years ago, there was some discussion about how few players could link us from the current test scene to the first ever test. It was less than you'd think - with Ramps having played against Viv Richards, who had played against Brian Close, which takes us back to 1948, etc, etc.

Simply having played county cricket in the 1980s makes him something of a relic. In the end, you'd have to say he was born about 15 years too soon. Under a more sympathetic regime, surely he would have done very much better. On the other hand, I wish he'd retired a couple of years earlier.

He still managed to knock up 52 tests tbf.

 

[wpdavid]

He still managed to knock up 52 tests tbf.

Yeah, I know. I meant that he'd have probably performed better if he'd been given the sort of run in the team that guys get nowadays instead of the hokey-cokey approach of the 1990's: (in, out, shake it all about in case you're wondering). But I'm aware of the view that if he was good enough he'd have cemented his place somewhere along the line.

fwiw I still hold the view that we missed this particular boat in the 1992 tour of NZ. Ramps had debuted the previous summer against the still mighty WI attack and averaged, iirc, 20-odd. Not spectacular, but, I think, more than Atherton, Hick and Lamb combined in the same series. It was pretty obvious to most of us that he just needed a couple of scores to settle the nerves and become a fixture. With respect, the 1992 series against one of NZ's weaker attacks fitted the bill nicely. Unfortunately the Gooch/Stewart regime saw things differently and Ramps didn't play. I think Reeve might have got the gig, ffs. Thereafter, Ramps was occasionally drafted in against far superior opponents and he never settled.

 

[Pothas]

With Mark Ramprakash goes the last imprint of an era of cricket | Barney Ronay | Sport | The Guardian

Barney Ronay on particularly fine form.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Will go down as one of the most frustrating players ever to play for England. Superb county career and awful test career.

 

[stumpski]

Will go down as one of the most frustrating players ever to play for England. Superb county career and awful test career.

I'd say indifferent, it's not as if he averaged sub-20 or anything. And he did average 42 against Australia at a time when most of our batsmen were struggling against them.

 

[fredfertang]

I think the key word in flibberty's post is frustrating - it's easy to forget sometimes that Ramp's had a number of decent knocks at Test level, but there really should have been so many more - I blame Ray Illingworth, mainly because he's a Yorkshireman

 

[stumpski]

We've been down this road before, but there were a few contenders for middle-order places in the 90s - principally Thorpe, Hick, Stewart, Hussain, Crawley, Smith (until 1996) and of course Ramprakash. It wasn't possible for all of them to play in the same side, so, perhaps not unreasonably, the selectors tended to go with whoever was in form at the time - and anyone who had a couple of bad games would be looking over his shoulder. It meant that a few of those guys were in and out of the side but that's inevitable when you have several players of a similar calibre to choose from.