Brief profile of Ian Ward by Matthew Reed

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Player:

IJ Ward

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DateLine: 13th February 2006

 

Ian Ward’s brief Test career provides a perfect example of how good the Australian touring team of 2001 was. After looking calm and assured on his Test debut against Pakistan in May 2001 (despite being an opener batting at no.8), against the Australians he soon became just another statistic as their pace attack ran through both him and England. At one stage in his career, even another First-class match seemed a long way away though. After his debut for Surrey in 1992, where he made a duck from no.9 and was first change bowler, he was soon released. He later said that his years in the cricketing wilderness, where he took a job as an aircraft cleaner to make ends meet, gave him a desperate drive to get back, and his strong club performances were quietly monitored by Surrey officials. After a strong Second XI campaign in 1996, he was re-engaged. He soon became the opening bat bedrock on which Surrey built their Championship winning seasons of 1999, 2000 and 2002, although for a time he was, along with Jason Ratcliffe, a rare non-international in a team of stars. His role in the team was vital though, and his high level of quiet competency perfectly complemented the more expansive batting instincts of his team-mates. Despite being a strong candidate to replace Adam Hollioake as Surrey skipper, he was surprisingly released by Surrey at the end of 2003, with purely financial reasons being cited. He was one of the most closely contested signatures of the close season, and he joined the reigning champions Sussex, although there was to be no title in his two seasons on the south coast, and after injures started to hit in 2005, Ward retired from First-class cricket to pursue a career in television.

 

(February 2006)

(Article: Copyright © 2006 Matthew Reed)