Mark Ramprakash: 10 interesting facts about County cricket’s batting great

Born September 5, 1969, Mark Ravin Ramprakash played 52 Tests and 18 ODIs for England between 1991-2002. A prolific run-scorer in the English county circuit, Ramprakash, surprisingly, had a very ordinary international career. Devarchit Varma lists down some interesting facts about the cricketer.

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1. First things first, Indian connection: Mark Ravin Ramprakash was born at Bushey, Hertfordshire to a Guyanese-Indian father and English mother.

2. A prolific run-scorer: Ramprakash is one of those rare batsmen who have scored a century of centuries in First-Class cricket. He played 461 First-Class games, amassed 35,659 runs at 53.14. By the time he ended his career in 2012, Ramprakash had 114 centuries and 147 half-centuries.

3. Comparatively ordinary international career: For someone who remained majorly a heavy run-scorer in the English County circuit, Ramprakash had a tough time at the international arena. He played 52 Tests, got only 2 centuries and 12 half-centuries. He scored an ordinary 2,350 runs at 27.32. These numbers certainly do not tell the story that he was excellent otherwise.

4. No success in limited-overs cricket as well: In 18 ODIs, he made mere 376 runs at 26.85 with just one half-century. There is no way we can determine why the difference in his numbers was as big as it was.

5. But then, Bradmanesque?: Ramprakash scored 1,000 runs in a single season a mind-boggling 20 times in his career that lasted 25 years. He crossed the 2,000-run mark in a season three times and averaged more than 100 two times in his career.

6. A tough nut: There have been plenty of reports describing about how animated he would get while playing, which will tell how bad he was. But all that can be labelled as something coming out from his passion of the game.

7. Australia’s foe: Ramprakash’s best came against Australia. He scored 933 runs against England’s arch rivals in 12 Tests at 42.40, but his best was not only playing against Australia but in their backyard. In Australia, Ramprakash played 6 Tests and scored 493 runs at a whopping 49.30.

8. Worthy for the Ashes: Ramprakash thought England should have taken him to Australia for the Ashes 2006-07, a time when they needed depth in their batting and his record against them was excellent. “I felt I should have been picked,” he was quoted as saying. However, not only Ramprakash was ignored for this series but also for the next, which was played in 2009 in England.

9. No Ashes? Let’s dance: Following the snub for the Ashes 2006-07, he enrolled for the dance reality show ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and emerged as a winner with Karen Hardy. As he tasted some success, Ramprakash did not miss out to mention in his autobiography that he felt “winning the title and proving that I could perform under massive pressure in a field so different from international cricket has made up for a lot of the disappointments and deep frustrations of my cricket career.”

10. Retirement, alas: For someone as immensely talented as Ramprakash, it was not fair to have an international career as ordinary as he had. In 2012, while England were battling to save their No. 1 Test spot in ICC Rankings, Ramprakash walked away from cricket. He was later appointed as England Lions’ and the country’s national team’s batting coach.

(Devarchit Varma is senior writer with CricketCountry. He can be followed on Twitter @Devarchit)