The Old World has an interesting mystique when it comes to domestic cricket and proving oneself in the English county game is the equivalent of passing the sternest of exams.
County cricket affords its overseas participants an important education in sporting and psychological terms; acclimatising to the cold and wet weather conditions, going through the daily grind in a different country, refining your game and developing mental steel are all essential parts of a wholesome county education.
It is akin to an acid test that many Indian cricketers would benefit from taking.
And of those that already have, the results were noticeable.
1) SACHIN TENDULKAR, Yorkshire, 1992
When Sachin Tendulkar signed for Yorkshire at the age of 19, he created history. He became the first-ever foreign player to sign for the county for what turned out to be his only season of county cricket. The good vibes he created were enough to make Yorkshire sign up the West Indies captain Richie Richardson in 1993, as Tendulkar realised he could not keep both his county and international commitments.
On the field, he recorded 1,070 runs in 25 innings, with one hundred (against Durham) and seven fifties. The runs came at an average of 46.52, meaning he was fortieth in the national averages that season. Although Tendulkar went on to far greater heights, he remains immensely proud of his brief county stint, as does the county.
2) RAHUL DRAVID, Kent, 2000
Kent CC still considers Dravid to be one of its own.
Rahul Dravid’s time with Kent coincided with some poor form for India the previous year, The Wall looking far from the greatness he is now fondly remembered with. His spell at Kent changed all that. He played fifteen games for the club, scored more than a thousand runs at 49.47, and was, by a distance, Kent’s best batsman that season. He also finished fourth in the list of top run-getters across the Championship that season.
The experience clearly helped him. Over the next few years, Dravid hit superhuman form, becoming India’s outstanding batsman. His average remained above 60 for four years and even climbed above 100 in 2003. A legend was born.
3) VVS LAXMAN, Lancashire, 2007 and 2009
Laxman sweeps while playing for Lancashire.
While the legend of VVS Laxman, at the time in his early thirties and an established face in the Indian side, had well and truly been forged, his form was a bit patchy in the couple of years or so leading up to his first of two spells with Lancashire.
Across both stints (5 and 11 matches), Laxman piled up 1,237 runs at a colossal average of 61.85, with six hundreds and six fifties to boot. The first stint was the lead-in to a four year period in which saw Laxman score over three thousand runs and six hundreds (over a third of all the hundreds he ever scored at Test level) at an average of 57.79 for India.
4) FAROKH ENGINEER, Lancashire, 1968-1976
Engineer (R), India’s original dashing wicket-keeper.
Indian cricketers haven’t generally made county cricket a consistently successful and productive side career. Farokh Engineer is the exception. A talented wicket-keeper-batsman, Engineer racked up more than 5,000 runs and had a direct hand in well over 400 dismissals in his 164-match career for Lancashire.
Besides the runs, Engineer was also part of the Lancashire side that won the 40-over Sunday League twice and the C&G Trophy four times while he was at the club.
5) ZAHEER KHAN, Worcestershire, 2006
Zaheer Khan is the perfect example of the kind of imprint a county education can leave. It helped him make the decisive step up from ‘promising talent’ to India’s primary pace spearhead. Zaheer collected an astonishing 78 wickets from his 16 county games for Worcestershire that season at an average of 29.07. It was a true coming-of-age for the bowler.
Before his county stint, Zaheer had 160 wickets in 56 Tests for India. After it he had totted up 151 wickets in 36 matches – a dramatic improvement that no Indian cricketer has effected on the back of a county stint. It was no coincidence that his English education made him one of the game’s leading pacers.