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Saturday 17 May 2008

They do make them like that any more

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Loyalty is almost non-existent in sport today. The likes of Ryan Giggs and Jamie Carragher, who stick at one club, are anachronisms. On the other hand, they earn fortunes and don't really need to move.

So the response of theswashbuckling Surrey batsman, Alistair Brown, to the IPL's offer of a three year contract is almost unbelievable, Brown - who is capable of some of the most destructive batting imaginable, and whose game is tailor-made for Twenty20 - is coming to the end of his career (he's 38); has only a one year contract with Surrey, his employers for the past twenty years; and is on no more than sixty or seventy thousand a year. And yet he turned the IPL's offer - which would have been way, way more than he is now on, and would have lasted three years - down. Here's why (prepare for your flabber to be gasted):

The main reason was that I've been at the Oval for 20 years and they have been the best 20 years of my life. The club have been incredibly good to me and, having signed a one-year contract, I didn't feel it was quite right to turn round and say: 'Let's tear that up and do something different. I want to go out to India because there's a lot of money up for grabs.'

Harbhajan came back and said he wanted me to think again because Sachin wanted me to go out and play and it would be a big contract on a three-and-a-half-year deal. I appreciated that there was probably more opportunity this year than maybe next, when there could be windows opening up for the England players, so I did think about it again over the weekend.

They were talking telephone numbers - I won't go into details, but it was going to be a vast increase on what I'm earning here and I wouldn't say I'm earning badly - and the opportunity of playing with the likes of Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya and Harbhajan turned your head. Tendulkar is the best player I've seen and Jayasuriya probably influenced my England call-up with his pinch-hitting.

It would have been fun but, ultimately, I had signed a contract with the club. At my age, I suppose they could have done something but I didn't go and ask them. I don't feel that last season brought out the best in my game and I'm really hungry to silence the doubters by scoring heavily and setting the record straight.

I was flattered to be asked to go to India and if I'd been in a different situation things would have been different, but they weren't and I'm certain I made the right decision. Life's not all down to money.

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