Laurie Evans: super-talented, extremely likeable and oozing confidence

So, when it was announced last week that Laurie Evans was to move to Essex this winter I went through my normal process. I took on board the news, then understood the reasons (he wants a new challenge, and Essex is a lovely fit) and started reminiscing.

And my mind went back some 20 years to a wooden fence at a club ground in Surrey. Back then, during pre-season, a day was often spent helping get a club ground ready for the new season as part of the NatWest Cricket Force initiative.

The players would come down and do a range of jobs, have their pictures taken and sign autographs, and it was always a good day.

On this particular morning, I was given the job of painting a white fence in front of the ground's Pavilion. And my partner with a brush was a blond-haired kid with a dodgy haircut on his first contract who introduced himself as “Laurie".

He was confident, extremely likeable and we had a happy morning painting and chatting. He was obviously talented at all sports, because he told me, and I walked away thinking to myself he was one to keep an eye on.

Then I saw him bat. And he had not been lying when he told me he was talented. He just looked good, had all the shots and this wonderful demeanour which was not arrogance but oozed confidence. In fact, I do remember thinking 'God, I would love to be able to bat like that'.

Laurie’s career to date has been an interesting one and sums up the modern cricketer. We have all seen what he can do in the shortest form of the game. For me, he is one of the best players I have seen in T20 cricket who has not represented England.

Indeed, he must have been close on numerous occasions, but the growth of franchise cricket has also seen him win the Big Bash with Perth Scorchers and play all around the world.

Seeing him light it up in Australia showed a new audience how much talent he has and he now has his own fan club in Perth and his 'gift of the gab' is regularly heard on the Big Bash coverage when he is on the player mic.

I have always thought Laurie and Sam Billings probably bash the producer’s door down when asking to speak to the commentators and there is definitely a career there for him when he finally decides to put the bat away because again he is a natural behind the microphone.

When he has a bat in his hands I have seen Laurie play shots that make you purr and I think his time away from Surrey, at both Sussex and Warwickshire, made him a better player as he matured. When he came back to Surrey he was an established franchise player.

With his talent he should have scored thousands of runs in red ball cricket. In a sporadic 14-year career he scored nearly 3,500 first-class runs with a highest score of 213 but when he first came into the Surrey side he went up and down the order and never got a consistent run in the side.

His best years in County Championship cricket were at Warwickshire, but he was always a 'gun' player when it came to T20. He made his Surrey T20 debut in 2009 and since then he has played another 381 games for various sides in franchise cricket.

I make it 19 different teams he has played for around the globe, scoring 7,765 runs at time of writing, and T20 cricket was made for him. In those 382 T20s to date he has struck no fewer than 300 sixes (and 674 fours, for good measure).

At Surrey, when he came back, I always got excited when he was opening the batting with Jason Roy. Seeing those two stroll to the middle got the cricketing juices flowing and they were an explosive combination. I do wonder if sometimes they were trying to outdo each other. “Ok Jason, you have just driven one 20 rows back into the pavilion… I’m going to try for 30.”

Laurie prides himself on winning games for whichever side he is playing for, and I will let you into a little secret. If I could come back and start again, I would want to be able to bat like Laurie because when he is on, he makes it all looks so easy and plays shots you can only dream of playing.

I will miss him, but Essex is the perfect fit, and he will score gorgeous runs for them, and they now get a hugely experienced player who will be relishing a new challenge. And he will provide entertaining interviews for the media and will no doubt end up in the commentary box.

One last memory of his time at Surrey. It was the Sunday of the Ashes Test in 2009 at the Kia Oval. The Surrey team were at the game after finishing their four-day game early and were sat behind me in the crowd as Mike Hussey and Ricky Ponting formed a partnership that was beginning to look extremely worrying for England.

Hussey pushed a ball up towards Andrew Flintoff at mid on and called Ponting for a quick single. Before the ball had reached Flintoff, a certain Laurie Evans - sat behind me - said in a very loud voice: “Hit them!” We all remember what happened next, as Ponting was run out by Freddie's bullet throw, and England went on to win the Test match and the Ashes.

That summed Laurie up, involved even when he was watching and producing the right words as he has produced the right shot so many times, just when he needed to.

Go well Loz and I look forward to seeing you playing your shots all around the world for a few more years yet.