OLYMPIC SPIRIT
CRICKET How a gold-medal winning hockey star inspired new England hero Pope
OLLIE POPE is the blazing young talent of English cricket.
And a sportsman whose first inspiration was the sight of an Olympic gold medal.
The Surrey star scored a brilliant maiden Test century in the winter series victory against South Africa.
He was denied the chance to build on that success when the recent scheduled tour of Sri Lanka was abandoned due to the coronavirus crisis.
Tribute
Instead, while trying to keep up his fitness with gym work and running in the lanes of Surrey, he has had time to reflect on his progress.
And to pay tribute to two mentors who have helped him along the way.
The first was Steve Batchelor (right), one of the 1988 GB hockey team that memorably captured a gold medal at the Seoul Olympics.
He was Pope’s hockey coach at school – and also the father of the player’s girlfriend at the time.
Pope, 22, recalls: “I spent a fair bit of time with him back in those schooldays, and he would share good sports stories and how it was back then.
“He talked about what it was like when he won that gold medal, which was pretty cool. He showed it to me, and of course that’s an inspiration to a youngster.
“There was also a memento of winning the BBC Sports Personality team of the year award. I wasn’t that good at hockey – but it would be nice to get one of those myself one day in cricket.”
Pope was destined to be a cricketer, and is a product of the outstanding Surrey academy that has propelled Sam and Tom Curran, Dominic Sibley and Rory Burns into the England Test side. “I remember on my Test debut, it was Sam’s third game,” says Pope.
“I was at fine leg, he was at deep square leg.
“We had a full crowd at Lord’s, we had India nine wickets down in that second innings, and we looked at each and smiled and looked around.
“It was a special moment to share with someone I’d been playing with since I was 14 years old. Making memories with Sam and the other guys is surreal.”
The second mentor for Pope is his Surrey boss, director of cricket and former England star Alec Stewart.
Confidence
“He’s a massive influence, and more than just a boss to so many of us,” says Pope.
“Before the trip to New Zealand at the start of winter, I went into his office for 45 minutes and we just chatted about how to deal with everything, how to mentally cope if it goes really well... or if it goes badly.
“He gave me the confidence to succeed with some of the things he said. He really trusts my ability, which I take as a massive compliment.
“Stewy presented my England cap to me on debut and did a phenomenal speech. He is one of the those guys that when he speaks, you listen.”