Marcus Hook’s Surrey CCC column: One longstanding world record tumbles but Ali Brown still top for highest individual score

A significant world record was trumped last week, with England racking up 498-4 against the Netherlands – the highest total in List A one-day cricket. The record was previously held by Surrey, who posted 496-4 against Gloucestershire in 2007.

Given the advances in bat manufacture, making what, back in the day, were regarded as railway sleepers significantly lighter to the touch, it’s surprising Surrey’s record stood for as long as it did. Mind, it was set with Ali Brown at the top of the order.

Brown still holds the world record for the highest individual score in one-day cricket – 268 for Surrey against Glamorgan in 2002.

I’d love to know how many runs Browny would have scored if he’d been using the bats of today and, for that matter, how many Jos Buttler would make if he was limited to the bats Ali wielded with such destructive effect 15-20 years ago.

That England can simultaneously field powerful sides in both Test and white-ball cricket gives lie to the assertion that the production line (otherwise known as county cricket) has dried up.

England are an awesome prospect in limited-overs cricket, not least because some serious white-ball operators can’t even get into the ODI and T20 sides.

It’s no coincidence that the more white-ball cricket has dominated the domestic schedule, the more successful England have been – which is why the rumoured contraction in the County Championship, possibly as early as next season, marks a worrying shift in red-ball emphasis.

Notwithstanding the brilliance England have shown in this summer’s opening two Tests, the wider picture is that they’ve still only won three of their last 19.

Also, much as we might want to kid ourselves otherwise, Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad won’t be around forever.

The smart money seems to be on the County Championship being split into three divisions of six teams, playing each other twice, or a top division of 12 and second of six, playing one another once – so a maximum of 11 four-day games a season instead of 14.

Another suggestion being tabled is staging the opening rounds of the championship overseas, in the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, to ease the pressure on the domestic schedule.

The pressure has been caused, of course, by The Hundred, which occupies the whole of August. But when you drill down further it’s surprising how few days’ county cricket there are.

Compared with 2002, when the domestic season was 157 days long, the maximum number a county could have been in action was 79 (or 50 per cent).

This summer it will be 82, but because the schedule is 19 days longer than 20 years ago, the percentage is just 43 per cent.

More and more players, like Surrey’s Laurie Evans and Chris Jordan, are specialising in white-ball cricket, making burn-out less of a concern; certainly less of an issue than in the late 1970s – when I first fell in love with the game – when professional squads were much smaller and counties were in action 70 per cent of the time.

In hindsight, that was bordering on saturation. Players weren’t paid anywhere near as much they are now, but they certainly earned their keep. But with so much cricket on offer that’s why, at some counties, you had to go on a waiting list to become a member.

Surrey are now the only county whose membership is increasing, and with the team delivering some scintillating cricket, is it any surprise?