Surrey's Ali Brown looks back on his international career and talks about the World Twenty20.
Surrey v Somerset
Pro 40 at the Brit Oval
4pm, Tuesday September 11 - Sky Sports 2
As the world's biggest hitters warm up for the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa, one of England's biggest hitters will be back in at home, helping Surrey through the final stages of the English domestic season.
At 37, Alastair 'Ali' Brown knows it is time to let the younger boys go about international one-day and Twenty20 cricket, but it won't stop the man, capped 22 times in limited overs internationals for England, watching the action in the southern hemisphere.
In fact, when Twenty20 cricket first appeared in county cricket it seemed to have been invented for a man who scored 268 for Surrey against Glamorgan in a limited overs match at the Brit Oval in 2002, a total that is still a record at any level of senior one-day cricket.
And so it doesn't come as a surprise that Brown, when not battling for promotion in the Pro40 league with Surrey, will have one eye on South Africa and the first international tournament of the fast and furious version of the game.
"I will definitely be watching the Twenty20 World Cup." Brown told
skysports.com. "It is a great format for the game and in terms of watching a whole one-day international, it is over fairly quickly and there is action straight away, which is great for the spectator.
"When Twenty20 cricket was first brought to us, I for one looked at it as a format that would suit me. On the times I have played it, I have maybe gone a bit too early, been a bit too aggressive, and that has probably cost me a few low scores.
"But I have been playing domestic cricket for 20 years now and to see grounds full is amazing. You see 30,000 at Lord's for a domestic game and the atmosphere is something else."
Brown thinks that England have every chance of success out in South Africa, provided they bat 'without fear'. And there is one man in the England squad that he would pay to watch in any form of the game.
"I hope we perform well in it and if we go without the fear of failure, I think we will," he says.
"I like watching Kevin Pietersen bat. I think he is a very decent player and shows the sort of aggression that is required, and the confidence as well.
"If you play at that level, you have to have a lot of self-belief, particularly if you get left out after a couple of poor performances.
"Pietersen is certainly a player I admire at that level and someone I would pay to watch."
The inbox at skysports.com still receives email that demands a recall for Brown, even though he is now 37-years-old and, by his own admission, isn't enjoying his best season.
But Brown, who played his 22nd and last one-day international five years after his first and over six years ago now, says it is too late for him, although he wonders whether he might have won more caps had the tactic for big-hitting talent at the top of the order been as popular ten years ago as it is now.
"I think a recall is well past me but there were times when I might have deserved a longer stay maybe. I certainly enjoyed the time I had there and I think now it is time for some of the younger players to take over the mantle," he says.
"I don't think that we really knew much about pinch-hitting at that time. We jumped on the back of Sri Lanka's 1996 World Cup success. They played exceptionally well in that tournament when no one expected them to win it, and they won it comfortably.
"Then there was a clamour to get people up the top of the order. I was probably held back by my first one-day international which was on a particularly seam-friendly wicket. It was a time when we were looking for pinch-hitters to play a big role at the start but when the ball is moving everywhere, that is obviously a tougher role to take on."
Brown is talking about a knock of 37 against India at the Brit Oval in a match ruined by rain. However there was enough action for Brown to make an impression on one journalist from The Times who likened his innings to something you would expect from a clown rather than a first class cricketer.
That type of response undermined the confidence of the selectors and despite scoring 118, opening the batting in a four-wicket victory over India at Old Trafford just days later, he was left out of the one-day squad that hosted Pakistan later in that same summer. Brown thinks that wouldn't happen a decade later.
"If you do that in the sub-continent where there is less seam movement, it is far easier to get away with it," says Brown.
"It was my first one-day international and I have never played on an Oval wicket that seamed as much as that one did. Then I think people were quick to say it doesn't work, that I was playing too many shots and not hitting the middle of the bat, which perhaps it had in the World Cup.
"People were quick to say England should scrap it and there was not enough confidence in me for that role. In my first one-day international I scored 37 and got slated for that. I scored a hundred in my third one-day international and then got dropped.
"I don't think that would necessarily happen nowadays. If someone scored a hundred in a one-day international, we would probably give him 30 one-dayers.
"Then they didn't have the confidence in that style of play but now, off the back of Australia's belligerence, there is more confidence that on the right wicket, it is the way to go.
"Being positive and using those 15 or 20 overs is the way forward and if you lose two or three wickets, so be it, but you could springboard yourself to a good score."
That job is no longer in the hands of Brown for England and many an England fan will lament that he wasn't seen more often flashing hard at the top of an England innings.
For the next couple of weeks Luke Wright and Matt Prior of Sussex have that job for England, and when not playing for Surrey, Brown will be watching. He will be forgiven for wondering, 'what if?'.
Ali Brown talked to skysports.com courtesy of Surrey CCC. For more information about Surrey CCC and how to buy tickets, visit www.surreycricket.com
