Marcus Hook’s Surrey CCC column: I’m surprised ECB agreed to Durham cancellation + verdict on Chris Jordan’s Oval return

With this week’s championship game against Durham being cancelled due to covid, Surrey will not have played any competitive cricket for 18 days when they rock up at Northampton on Sunday.

Given that Kent were forced, in similar circumstances, to field a second team against Sussex in July, I was surprised that the ECB agreed to Surrey’s request to call the Durham trip off.

Some of the supporters were already in the North East when the news broke, while others still went ahead with their plans after looking into the cost of cancelling hotels, and finding out they couldn’t.

But, I guess, with the departure of Mark Stoneman to Middlesex and others away with England or coming back from injury, all of those who were in line to play had come into contact with the player who went down with covid following the net session on 26 August 26.

The news that Chris Jordan will be returning to the Oval next season came in for criticism on social media, with many accusing Surrey of waving a cheque book rather than producing homegrown players.

Yes, it saddened me nine or 10 years ago when Surrey invited the likes of Zander De Bruyn, Gary Keedy, Jon Lewis and Vikram Solanki to spend the twilight of their careers at the Oval.

But, in recent years, we’ve seen the Currans, Jacks, Moriarty, Patel, Pope, Smith and Virdi graduate from the Surrey academy; and forgive me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Jordan also a product of Surrey’s academy system? Anyway, it remains to be seen quite how much Surrey will see of CJ, who is a vital cog in England’s one-day machine, a key player for Southern Brave in The Hundred and, no doubt, in line for further stints in the IPL and the Big Bash.