THE GOOGLY: As Burns and Sibley show, the talent is in Surrey, you just have to know where to find it

HUW TURBERVILL: The Kia Oval production line is continuing apace with as many as four players to come through the system set to start England's first Test in New Zealand

Quiz question: what links the England Test team with the Spider-man franchise? The answer: Surrey, of course! 

Yes, the county are forging dynamic duos in cricket and superhero films.

So Rory Burns and Dominic Sibley will open the batting for England in the first Test against New Zealand at Mount Maunganui, Tauranga, while Tom Holland, of Kingston, is the incumbent web slinger, following in the footsteps of Andrew Garfield, who was educated in Epsom.

Surrey is a big county of course, from Waverley to Woking, and Runnymede to Reigate. And, specifically, it is a seriously big cricket county. 

With a population of 1.2m, and its vast number of recreational leagues (86 Clubmark clubs plus about another 360), and abundance of schools (even state) churning out talent, it is second in its size only to Yorkshire. No wonder players get/got lost in the system.

Take Burns and Sibley. Burns, 29, had been on The Rey’s radar since he was six, attending the indoor school of Neil Stewart, brother of Alec, at City of London Freemen’s. He started playing for Surrey representative sides at nine. He played for Banstead CC, and went to independent school Whitgift in Croydon; fed up with batting in the tail and keeping wicket, he switched to Freemen’s, where Neil Stewart was coach, for the sixth form.

Level-headed, softly-spoken and meticulous in preparation... The making of Dom Sibley - England's newest star bound for greatness

His transition into the senior Surrey set-up didn’t work out, however. He put his career back on track studying sports science and playing for the Cardiff MCCU team under the tutelage of former Glamorgan batsman and 2nd XI captain, Kevin Lyons, also known to many as a first-class umpire. 

Somerset showed interest. Glamorgan should have done. He scored centuries against Loughborough and Durham universities, and 234 against Oxford University in the Parks. He then scored three hundreds for Combined Universities. Surrey rang him to find out more about him. It was then that he pointed out he’d been on their books since he’d been in single figures. They – belatedly – gave him a two-year deal.

Never again, Surrey vowed. They had been relying on clubs to nurture and highlight talent. They revamped their player development system, appointing Gareth Townsend as academy director. He implemented a performance cricket structure, ensuring the net was widened across the county, so there was no longer a reliance on certain club members running district teams for a select few.

Sibley didn’t leave Whitgift. He made his Surrey first XI debut in 2013 while in year 12/lower sixth (whatever you call it, depending on how old you are). In his third Championship match, I spent my 41st birthday at The Oval on a sunny September day watching the 18-year-old plunder 242 off a startled Yorkshire attack, including a bemused Ryan Sidebottom. Sibley had become county cricket's youngster double-centurion.

^{Dom Sibley made his name at Surrey before moving to Warwickshire}

His progress was skittish, however, and in 2017 he joined Warwickshire. He had turned down a three-year deal at Surrey after receiving promises from his suitors that he would bat in the top order in all three forms of the game. Alec Stewart said that Sibley's decision was “bitterly disappointing”, but insisted he was unable to offer him selection guarantees, with Burns, Mark Stoneman and Scott Borthwick in his way.

Rikki Clarke rejoined Surrey in something of a swap deal and has been superb of course (although at 38 even he cannot go on forever). Surrey felt that they had the better of the arrangement until Sibley started knocking out runs for fun. Last summer he made 1,324 in the Championship, with five centuries, including 215 not out and 109 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in the penultimate match of the season. On this tour, he made a century in the opening warm-up match against a New Zealand XI at Whangarei.

His career strike-rate is 41.20. Yep, it may not set the pulses racing but Brigadier Block and Lieutenant Leave are badly needed after Joe Root’s gung-ho approach in recent years. 

Sibley’s successful move to Edgbaston has been reminiscent of Nick Knight’s from Essex in 1995. So both somehow found a path through the leviathan that is the Surrey cricket system. 

^{Ian Ward was plucked from obscurity} 

There also shades of Ian Ward’s experience. Released by Surrey at 18, the Sky Cricket anchorman spent four years playing for Malden Wanderers in the Surrey League. He worked in a garage, and also cleaned jumbo jets at Heathrow, before being signed up again at 22, going on to enjoy a successful career with Surrey and Sussex, as well as winning five Test caps. 

As Pelé said: "Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do." These Surrey cricketers made it, but just in a roundabout way.

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