Marcus Hook’s Surrey CCC column: Worrall and Clark – my picks before a ball was bowled – producing the goods

Surrey now have a week off, as do seven of the other 17 teams – notwithstanding the fact that Monday’s Bank Holiday would have given those who work full-time the chance to savour some red-ball action.

That said, The Oval was hardly enticing for last week’s visit of Hampshire. Not only did rain put paid to the best part of a day’s play, it was also bitterly cold.

Such was the South Londoners’ dominance this season that leading wicket-taker leg-spinner Cameron Steel (21 victims at an average of 12.33) barely got a bowl.

Indeed, he has been leapfrogged in Surrey’s bowling averages by Dan Worrall, who bagged figures of 3-44 and 5-47 against Hampshire to take his tally to 14 victims at 12.14 runs apiece.

Worrall, who was absent for the opening two games due to a neck issue – with the Kookaburra they were good ones for the 32-year-old seamer to miss – was one of my ‘Three Who Will Be Key’ going into the campaign.

Another was Jordan Clark, whose century left Hampshire with no way back.

Some £300m or more of private equity looks set to make its way into the domestic game. The details are sketchy and it will need two-thirds of the first-class counties to agree to selling off 49 per cent of the ECB’s share in The Hundred. But with debt-laden balance sheets – and at least three counties routinely receiving their central funding in advance to help with cashflow – it’s inconceivable to think it won’t get the nod.

Occasionally, on Homes Under The Hammer people buy a plot of land or woodland to stop it being developed. But the sums being talked about here would need four cricket-lovingEuromillions jackpot winners clubbing together to prevent private investors taking control of the county game.

Most of the buyers featured on Homes Under The Hammer seize the opportunity to make a return on their investment. Mark my words, this will be no different.

I’m old enough to remember what it used to be like before Kerry Packer revolutionised the game in the late 1970s, prior to which cricketers were grossly under-paid compared with other sports. That was still the case even after Packer. The truth is things didn’t change until the IPL came along. So, it will be good for the players and the counties will be solvent again, but at what cost?

Due to his involvement in the IPL, county fans could be forgiven for thinking Surrey’s Will Jacks is injured or being rested at the request of the England management. But his unbeaten hundred for Royal Challengers Bangalore, off just 41 balls, last Sunday forcefully put his case to be in the top three for England when the Men’s T20 World Cup gets under way at the start of June.

Sadly, Jacks’ Surrey team-mate Jamie Overton is unlikely to feature. As soon as Ben Stokes ruled himself out of the T20 World Cup, Overton was seen as his obvious replacement after being the Most Valuable Player in last year’s Men’s Hundred and an impressive Big Bash campaign for Adelaide Strikers.

With the initial scans on Overton’s back proving inconclusive, further scans will be taken next week to determine the seriousness of the fast-bowling all-rounder’s injury.

PICTURES: KEITH GILLARD