Bounce back is possible in 2027 - if the right decisions are made first

It was reading my colleague Richard Spiller’s excellent piece earlier this week on The Rey, arguing that change is coming – just as it did for all the great Surrey teams of the past – that set me thinking.

Richard, correctly, pointed out that the rapid break-up after 2003 of Adam Hollioake’s side, the last great team before the present one led by Rory Burns, was mainly due to them growing old together.

Put simply, a team packed with internationals saw virtually all its leading players – with a few exceptions such as Mark Ramprakash, who had joined from Middlesex in 2001 – retire around the same time.