Marcus Hook’s Surrey CCC column: Hampshire look to be main rivals as our odds shorten on County Championship title win

Surrey are now odds on to win the County Championship, which makes me extremely uneasy because it suggests it’s theirs to lose.

All I will say is, let’s see what the table looks like after the home games against Essex (due to finish today) and Warwickshire (the defending champions, next week).

From day one it seems the equation has been whoever finishes above Hampshire takes the title.

The manner in which Hampshire defended 152 against a powerful-looking Lancashire side to be crowned Vitality Blast champions tells us a great deal about their credentials.

Hampshire also have the advantage of being able to field a settled side (they have only used 14 players to Surrey’s 21) due to their being largely unencumbered by international calls.

At the time of writing, Surrey have made a useful start against Essex. Having said that, this time last week I was convinced they had no chance of pulling off a victory at Scarborough, as you no doubt gathered!

Allowing Essex to recover from 91-6 to post 271 in their first dig could come back to bite the Oval outfit if the pitch ends up being to Simon Harmer’s liking. The off-spinner is on fire at the moment, having taken 34 wickets at 14.02 runs apiece in Essex’s last three games.

It has been an unforgettable week in the world of cricket. The other day, Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne posted “What’s the best thing you’ve seen in cricket this last week?” on social media. Within eight hours, he’d received 2,000 responses.

For Surrey fans, the answer was easy – beating Yorkshire with three balls to spare to remain 15 points clear at the top of the championship.

But for many others it was the climax to the Vitality Blast final, which capped a competition that delivered more entertainment this year than, perhaps, ever before.

How Hampshire held their nerve after celebrating what they thought was victory, only to be summoned back after the third umpire noticed a no-ball, showed unshakeable belief.

The Hundred certainly has a tough act to follow – made harder by Ben Stokes’ withdrawal from the competition, even though he features prominently in the tournament’s promotional material.

On top of this comes the news that four of its leading overseas stars, namely Australia’s Sean Abbott, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Adam Zampa, will miss the conclusion to The Hundred due to Australia’s ODI series against Zimbabwe and New Zealand.

Stokes has also called time on his one-day international career – a decision that was made easier with England playing 12 white-ball internationals in 24 days, starting two days after four Tests in five weeks.

Although Stokes will continue as England’s Test captain, his parting shot didn’t exactly pull any punches: “There is too much cricket rammed in for people to play all three formats now. We are not cars, you can’t just fill us up.”

While the amount of cricket that’s squeezed into the domestic season will continue to be debated, one can’t help feeling the issue is more about when it’s played rather than how much.

With August approaching, the full-on county schedule will slow down to a trickle.

Should they fail to qualify for the knockout phase of the Royal London Cup, Surrey will play just eight one-day games in the space of six weeks with, potentially, no competitive cricket whatsoever between August 24 and 11 September 11.

When the weather is so hot that it’s seen as a risk to health to play cricket, you know we’re living in strange times.

For the opening day of this week’s round of championship matches, the teams in a couple of games agreed to three 90-minute sessions – with play ending at 4.30pm instead of 6pm, and the time lost being made up over days two, three and four – to protect the players.

You also know it’s hot when the MCC allows men to take their jackets off in the Lord’s Pavilion, as it did for the Middlesex v Sussex clash. They still had to wear ties, though.

It also strikes me we’re living in strange times when an organisation that’s without a permanent chairperson and CEO signs a multi-million pound contract, such as the new TV deal the England and Wales Cricket Board agreed last week.

One wonders why there’s so much hurry when the current one doesn’t run out until 2024, and, more to the point, when the identities of new chairperson and CEO are set to be revealed in a fortnight’s time.

Surrey’s chairman, Richard Thompson, who has been linked to the role of ECB chair, is a sceptic of The Hundred, saying the same end could be achieved by beefing up the T20 Blast by introducing promotion and relegation.

But given the new TV deals extends the life of The Hundred through to 2028, it’s reasonable to assume, now, that the new appointees are advocates for the competition.

Finally, Josh Blake being awarded his first contract, by Surrey, makes for a great story, doesn’t it?

The 23-year-old keeper-batsman from Sutton dropped out of the club’s academy at the age of 16. But his love for the game was what kept alive his dream of making it as a professional.

He turned the disappointment into a positive by accepting a role with Surrey’s community programmes three years ago, delivering Chance To Shine sessions in primary schools throughout the county – and just look where it has led.