Brown, 51, was a dynamic batsman for Surrey. He was a formidable first-class player, averaging 42 and making 47 centuries
Ali Brown, 51, was a dynamic batsman for Surrey. He was a formidable first-class player, averaging 42 and making 47 centuries. He is probably recalled best for his stunning strokeplay in the limited-overs game, though. He played in 16 ODIs, but his adventurous style was ahead of his time. He now coaches at a school and loves the dogs!
You still hold the record for the highest ever List A individual score (268 for Surrey against Glamorgan at The Oval in 2002?) What were the circumstances of that innings?
We had drawn Scotland in the first round of the C&G Trophy and I managed to hit the first ball of that game, very hard, straight to extra cover and walked off. In the second round we played Glamorgan and I didn’t have a nice score from Scotland to go forward with. I had butterflies that I don’t normally have and I’ve got ADHD, so I never subscribe to what the coaches are saying if I had a more exciting plan, but the ball swung a lot early on, so I had to be quite watchful. That bought me time, so I played the ball rather than trying to be too aggressive.
After that period, after about five overs, when the ball tends to swing less, I started to feel in, and that day in particular, I don’t think I’ve ever hit the ball cleaner. It was a very good wicket, and we didn’t win by very much in the end, but the first five overs I scored well without taking too many risks and then after that I took the positive option. It was one of those days. I always believed that double-hundreds were achievable.
I had also had a double in a 55-over game. On that day, I was trying to see if I could get 300, that was my vision and I walked across a ball, way outside leg stump and I went too far across. Do I think it will ever be beaten? I think everything is there to be beaten. I’m honoured to have held it for this long and put a line in the sand. The game is changing, I love the positive nature of cricket and how we have gone into 20 overs with the higher strike-rates. I was never a player who was ever interested in one-day averages, they didn’t interest me at all. The only thing that ever interested me was the one-day strike-rate, because that’s how I believed games were won.
Who inspired you?
Ian Botham and Viv Richards. They were the ones who inspired me at an early age, to play the way I did, and my father, Robert, who had a similar mind set. He was an opening left-hander and told me nothing about his career ever, but I watched some of his games and other notable club players told me about his innings. My first one-day hundred was against Glamorgan at Llanelli and Viv was on the opposition. I wanted to show him that I could play. The same with Botham, the first time I played against him, at Durham, I got 175. We played the one-day game on the Sunday, and I ran him out from deep mid-off for 50, and I promise you, I haven’t been more gutted in my life. It might have looked good throwing the stumps down from deep mid-off, but to me, I thought: “What have I done?” I was enjoying watching him bat.
On ODI debut against India
Do you think you were ahead of your time?
Captains like Dermot Reeve were so important. I was with Dermot in Australia, and he had a net down the side of his house, and he was talking about 60-over cricket and it showed me why it was that he was ahead of the game. He said when it came to lunch the coaches would frown on you if you got out just before. It was very negative when it came to one-day cricket. He flipped that mentality and encouraged his players to always take the positive option, so in the last eight overs before lunch, the opposition would have been at four an over, while his side were going at six an over. It was that mindset that interested me. If I was told to block it, or to be more watchful, it didn’t excite me, it wasn’t how I wanted to play the game.
You only played 16 ODIs? Why didn’t you get more of an opportunity?
I remember my first ODI, I was opening with Mike Atherton against India, and I thought that I was brought in as the pinch hitter. The pitch at The Oval had been under covers for four days and it zipped all over the place. I got 37 and I was slated in The Times for the way I played. I was given the role as a pinch hitter, so I had to play this role on a seaming wicket. I ran at the bowlers because I wanted them to bowl short at me. That was vilified in the press. I got a duck in my second ODI to a ball that you might have reviewed in today’s game.
I got better press for the duck than I did for the 37. Then I got 118 in the third ODI, and then I got dropped. I don’t think, at the time, they had the belief in the way we should go about playing that they do now. After that I always felt in every ODI I played, that I was always two games away from getting dropped. At that time, we were always keen for change, but the lack of confidence in the process I adopted had its impact on my career. I was dropped, then selected, then dropped two games later.
You must love the way England play now…
I retired in 2011. The job of 2nd XI coach came up at Surrey, and Jason Roy was just coming through. He had a very similar mindset to me and was someone that I was very keen to watch in those early years. I wouldn’t say I’ve moulded him or anything like that. He is his own player and I think he plays straighter now than he did then, he plays spin brilliantly. The difference is, when he made his debut, I’m so glad they stuck with him, because he’s showing now what he can do.
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Players who are positive are always going to go through the odd run where they don’t play quite so well, but they are match winners, and match winners are going to take more risks which means at times, they are not always going to come off. What Eoin Morgan has done in the last four or five years is exceptional. One of the first games when he said this was how it was going to be was at Chester-le-Street, and Eoin went in at No.3 or 4 and he slog-swept his first ball straight to deep midwicket. Some people might think of a first-ball duck as a failure, but for me, if I had been in that side, that would have been a huge positive to me, because he had said the way he wanted them to play, and he had gone out and done it from ball one.
What have you done since?
I was there for five years as a coach at Surrey, and I was lucky enough to have some great players – the Currans, Rory Burns, Roy, Ollie Pope, many players who have come through. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, Dom Sibley was another. Then I went to Trinity School in Croydon where I have been for the last five years which I love. At that point I was offered a job working for The Racing Post which I have always had an interest in. I played with a couple of greyhound trainers at Wimbledon and Cheam, so I’ve always loved it. I was invited to present a greyhound show which I’ve been doing for five years and it’s a great thing to do once a week. It’s about a three-and-a-half- hour show and it’s good fun.
Have you made any money out of greyhounds then?
Yes a lot. When I was a cricketer a lot of people were surprised by how much I analysed the opposition. It’s the same with greyhounds. I analyse a lot and watch videos, and unfortunately due to that I have had pretty much all of my betting accounts closed to betting on greyhounds. I’ve owned greyhounds too. The first was with my best man and current chairman at The Oval, Richard Thompson – it was called Franks Hat. That was in the 1990s. I owned another later on that was a bit of fun. Unfortunately, my local greyhound track is now Hove as the Wimbledon track has been knocked down, so I don’t own any at present, but I am very interested in it and love analysing and watching them and it’s a great hobby of mine.
This article was published in the Summer edition of The Cricketer - the home of the best cricket analysis and commentary, covering the international, county, women's and amateur game