Surrey add top-level performer as Alec Stewart defends county game and confronts franchise cricket

Surrey have signed New Zealand all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme as an overseas player for the next three County Championship matches.

De Grandhomme will be available for this week’s match against Gloucestershire in Bristol, next week’s game against Northamptonshire at The Kia Oval (May 5-8) and thederby against Kent at Beckenham (May 12-15).

De Grandhomme, who has played 28 Tests with a batting average of 38.60 and bowling average of 33.08, as well as 86 white-ball internationals, has previously played county cricket for Hampshire and Warwickshire, scoring 174 for Hampshire against Surrey at the Ageas Bowl in July last year.

De Grandomme said: “I am looking forward to getting over to the UK, joining the Surrey lads and getting stuck in for a few County Championship games.”

Surrey’s director of cricket Alec Stewart added: “Following the injury to Kemar Roach we are pleased to have secured Colin’s services for the next three four-day games. He already has good experience of the county game and will add to the quality and balance of the team.”

Speaking at Surrey’s annual general meeting on Tuesday night, Stewart repeated his call for county cricket not to be made the scapegoat for England’s poor Test record of late.

“Every time England loses in the Ashes there will be a review, but it’s important the ECB do not under-estimate county cricket,” said the former Surrey and England captain.

“Without county cricket there won’t be an England team. So we, at Surrey, have to make sure we produce the best cricketers possible. I know it does affect the strength of our team when players go off and play for England, but it should be the dream of every player to play at the highest level.”

With the IPL and The Hundred making life difficult for all the counties, in terms of challenging for silverware, Stewart said: “One thing we have to confront is franchise cricket – whether that’s The Hundred, the IPL or all the other franchise cricket around the world, it’s changing the face of county and domestic cricket.

“There’s no point fighting it, because it’s here to stay, but what we have to do is when they’re our players we look after them.

“That’s why I was very strong this year on the IPL ruling that, if a player had not been signed by February 28, they would not go. We had one player who was asked to go in early March and I turned that down. The player accepted it and he’s now playing for Surrey and he’s fully on board.

“If we allow franchises to walk all over us then we’re in a pretty sad state. We understand that the world of cricket is changing, that franchise cricket is here to stay, but when they’re Surrey players, wearing the Surrey shirt, they will be 100 per cent committed.”

With a membership of more than 17,000 – up from 14,000 last year – Surrey are now setting their sights on overtaking the MCC as the largest cricket club in the country in terms of member numbers.

“Very few organisations grew during the pandemic,” said Richard Thompson, Surrey’s chairman. “But we managed to grow during the pandemic when you couldn’t even come here and watch any cricket.

“Our ambition is to become the biggest club in the country and we are now around 1,400 short of doing that. I appreciate the MCC do have a waiting list, but they have 18,500 members and I’m very confident we’re going to go past that in the next 12 to 24 months.

“Having 14 people stand for general committee. I’ve not seen that many stand for an awful long time. That, again, is a reflection of a very strong membership.”

At the AGM, it was also announced that Surrey County Cricket Club made a £5.4million profit before tax in 2021-22 – a significant turnaround from the £1.2m loss before tax the previous year (2020-21), in which it was estimated the pandemic cost the club £5.6m.