Nick Compton: "I was at my best when I was out to prove people wrong"

SAM DALLING speaks to former the England batsman about his Test career, losing his place, Somerset and his inherent toughness

“I said: ‘Andy, look me in the eyes. If you want me to go and field, I will go and field, but if the ball comes and I’m exposed please don’t blame me. I’m in a lot of pain and I don’t think I can do a job that is warranted of an England fielder in a Test match.’”

It’s May 28, 2013, in an Ashes summer.

Day five at Headingley and lunchtime is fast approaching. The dressing room is sparsely populated.

England are applying the finishing touches to victory. They will shortly wrap up a 247-run triumph over New Zealand.

In the build-up to the match, Nick Compton was struck in the ribs at the indoor school. An innocuous blow; too quickly through a pull shot. That’s all.

It’s not given a second thought. But a few days later he’s struggling for movement, struggling for breath.

An MRI scan on the fifth morning proves inconclusive. A suspected hairline fracture, but it’s impossible to tell.

With the game all but won, Compton has a word with his Alastair Cook and Andy Flower. He sits out the session.

And that was that. Except it wasn’t.

When the scan results return, there’s no fracture - just heavy bruising. Irrelevant really given Compton can barely raise his arm.

But for some reason Flower takes exception.

“Anyone will tell you there’s no difference [between a hairline fracture and deep bruising]; its deeply painful. It’s innocuous, it’s weird, but for some reason you can’t breathe,” Compton tells The Cricketer.

“Andy takes me into a room and goes ballistic. I just looked at him - “I’m telling you as a 29-year-old cricketer I can’t go and field in a Test match” – he stormed out of the room.

“I’m telling you straight, I didn’t play it up. I couldn’t lift my arm up to catch a ball or stretch. I don’t bowl, I’m not a specialist fielder – it didn’t make any sense.”

“I knew walking away from that Test match it might be it. Then I heard from KP that there were rumours I’d faked an injury.

“I got paranoid. I felt like that there was no justice and this was just wrong.”

Compton would go on to play for England again. But not that summer. And not in an Ashes series. A couple of weeks on from that fateful day in Leeds, he made 166 for Somerset in the County Championship.

He then took guard against the Aussies in two warm-up games for Somerset and Worcestershire respectively. 

The results? 81 in the first against an attack spearheaded by Mitchel Starc, James Pattinson and Peter Siddle, and 79 against Ryan Harris and Jackson Bird in the second. But it wasn’t enough. The call never came. Or at least not the one he wanted.

“That was without doubt the worst time of my career,” he admits.

“I didn’t really get it. I’ve scored back-to-back Test hundreds, I’m averaging 40 in Test cricket – okay, it’s not perfect, but I thought it was a bit strange that my place was still being questioned.

 “That all came from Michael Vaughan trying to promote Joe Root – I’m his biggest fan, what a player. But he was fine in the middle order. There was no need to put added pressure on him to open the batting.

^{Compton scored two Test centuries}

“I could understand that Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow were the coming men and of course they were going to be fantastic players.

“In hindsight there was no need to change a team that was No.1 and winning everything.

“I don’t think there was any agenda. I just think there was a need to push things along when they didn’t need to. There was no need for England to have 12 opening batsmen over three years.

“It seemed obvious from my point of view, but maybe not so obvious in reality.

There’s no bitterness though. That’s immediately apparent from Compton.

Flower was a notoriously tough operator. That was a was a huge part of the side’s success.

The Zimbabwean was straight talking and bullish, and that suited Compton’s character. But the top-order man’s place was under siege.

Despite twin hundreds against New Zealand earlier in 2013, he was hanging on by a thread in the build-up to the home series a few months later.

It made no sense that he’d sit out unless absolutely necessary. Naturally, the batsman wanted nothing more than to be out on the field proving his salt.

And having his integrity, his desire to dig in for his country called into question hurt him deeply. As did the feeling of having let Flower down.

“I quite liked the no nonsense approach - keep your head down and show them you’re tough. Unless Andy could see a broken bone on an MRI scan he wasn’t interested.

“That was fine. He was a strong Zimbabwean. I understood his language and what cricket meant.

“I respected him and desperately wanted to earn his respect for being tough. I knew I could earn his respect by saying little, working my nuts off and fighting through tough moments.

“It really upset me that I had to moan. I didn’t like myself for it because that wasn’t how I wanted Andy to see me.

“I wanted to be that tough, ruthless guy that Andy Flower could say: ‘Okay, so Nick Compton isn’t the most talented player but I know when he goes out there he will fight his bottom dollar for the team.’ That was success for me.”

But does Compton feel harshly treated? Yes. And justifiably so. He’d broken into the England set-up ahead of the tour of India in the winter of 2012.

Opening in all four tests, the right-hander had shown glimpses of what he could bring to the table. Solid, if unspectacular – his stock in trade.

He was in the side to do a job, and he did it well. Mission accomplished; England triumphed in India for the first time in 28 years. And at the other end, the captain flourished. Cook notched 562 runs in four Tests on the sub-continent, including three centuries.

With the shackles off, Cook returned to his fluent best. The presence of a solid, dependable opening partner almost certainly played its part.

There’s no hint of Compton seeking the sympathy vote; he just believes there was room for what he brought to the table.

“If we were losing matches and series by all means get rid of me. The power of international sport is that you’ve got to be able to do something that others can’t do.

“You’ve got to create your own niche. And I produced something that no one else in English cricket was producing bar obviously Cook and the Trotts - I earned my stripes.

“I do deep down feel that England missed a trick with me.

^{His final Test came at Lord's against Sri Lanka in 2016}

“It might have been boring and not brought millions of people to their feet, I still think there was a certain thing that I did as a top order batter in county cricketer that no one else had really done.”

The former Middlesex and Somerset man had earned his seat on the plane for that tour through sheer weight of runs.

The 2012 summer yielded no fewer than 1,494 in first class cricketer at a Bradman-esque average of 99.6 – you can’t ignore those numbers.

But it almost didn’t happen. An old hernia issue flared up shortly before the trip. Everything he’d ever worked for was suddenly in doubt.

With his dream in touching distance, Compton did what he felt necessary to prevent it slipping through his fingers.

He concealed the injury from the England medical team and dealt with it under his own steam.

“I got a call from Geoff Miller and had a month – maybe 6 weeks before we left for India,” he explains.

“I’ve had an injury record that I’m not proud of and had three hernia operations in 2004 and 2009.

“There was something not right with the same region again - I remember shaking at night thinking if I phone the England physio or doctor there’s no way I’ll be going on this England cricketer tour.

“This was my dream and there was no way anything was getting in the way of it.

“I flew myself to Germany and paid for the operation for myself, unbeknown to the England officials. It was this German doctor who’d done all the top footballers and had a very minimalistic operation.

“I rehabbed quietly on my own and got myself fit for the tour. I did what I had to do.”

Having come through the ranks at Middlesex, without a doubt Compton’s best days came in Somerset colours.

In danger of stagnating in London, the right-hander needed a fresh challenge and made the move to the West Country ahead of the 2010 season.

He spent five fruitful years at Taunon, providing the yin to the yang of Messrs’ Trescothick, Buttler and Kieswetter.

In only 67 first class appearances at the club, he racked up more than 5,000 runs at just shy of 56. Success wasn’t immediate though. A relatively lean run early on meant the former Harrow pupil lost his place in the red-ball side midway through his debut campaign.

Dropped to the 2nd XI, there was work to be done. And then came his sliding doors moment, courtesy of the man responsible for luring Compton to Taunton; director of cricket Brian Rose.

Rose had skippered the county during its glory days and played international cricket with some of the game’s great and good. When he spoke. people listened.

“Brian was never a man of many words – I may have said 5 words to him in 5 years,” he says.

“But I remember him coming up to me and saying – “I got you down here to bat and not to get out. I’ve got other players who can move the scoreboard along. You’re the one guy who I got here to not get out. Whenever you go out to bat, don’t get out.”

“I remember walking out there and my mind was so clear; he told me not to get out so I’m not going to get out.

“If I block it for five hours and I’m on nought, then I block it for five hours for nought.

“From that moment I never really spoke to Brian again.

^{Some of Compton's greatest success came at Somerset}

“All he would do was look across that changing room with that stern eye and that said “you just bat” – even if it was a one day game.”

When all’s said and done, Compton can look back on his career with great pride; 16 Test caps for his country, following in the footsteps of his grandfather.

A County Championship title, 33 career hundreds and the adulation of Somerset and Middlesex fans.

He’s been on the winning side of a Test series in India, had his old man there to watch him rack up a maiden Test hundred and passed a thousand runs on six occasions.

But it’s the much simpler things that give a man often perceived as a complex the most joy.

“The hostility behind Test cricket is something my Dad engendered in me in terms of showing courage, showing fight, never backing down.

“Getting out there when other players are jumping around and don’t fancy it. That’s what being a professional top player meant to me.

“I was at my best when I was out to prove people wrong - out to be strong and really hold things together for the team that I played for.

“That’s what gave me the most satisfaction; going out there against the new ball and getting through those tough situations.

“It’s the only feeling I really crave in cricket; to know that you were part of something and valued. That’s what I look for and felt very proud of at Somerset. I was valued because I did something that others didn’t do.”

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