COMPTON’S HARD SLOG
Ben making name for himself
AFTER three rounds of the County Championship, a familiar name is top of the Division One run-scoring charts.
Three centuries and an 89 have put Kent’s Ben Compton 116 runs clear of his nearest rival.
But the flame-haired 28-year-old is not the first Compton people think of.
Cousin Nick dominated the county circuit during a career with Middlesex and Somerset that included 16 Test appearances for England.
Before that, most famously of all, it was grandfather Denis, above. An icon of the game in a world-beating England team of the Fifties, he had a stand named after him at Lord’s where great uncle Leslie also played for Middlesex.
So, with all that family history, surely it was a straightforward journey for Ben to follow the Compton path?
“Not quite,” said Ben who had played just five County Championship matches before this season for Nottinghamshire. “It was really difficult to get opportunities to play over the years. It would just be the odd second-team game. “People think I’ve been rejected quite a bit, but the truth is I haven’t really had many chances to get rejected so it has been a long and challenging journey to get to this point. The dream has always been there but it didn’t happen for a long time.
“People might know my surname, but it is about me proving myself and I have had to learn to be resilient because I’ve not been handed any favours.”
Having his cousin, 10 years his senior, forging a path all the way to the Test team was motivation. Nick, left, had to fight for his chances with England, and might have played more in another era, and he has helped Ben keep at it.
“I have really tried to feed off Nick and what he did,” said Ben. “I was only a little kid when Denis passed away so I’ve only heard and read about his career. “Nick has been a great help, he put me in touch with Neil Burns, whom I have worked with down the years, and I have seen up close just how hard Nick worked as a player. I have tried to take his best qualities and apply them to my game.” Compton is now focused on taking the chance that coach Matt Walker has given him at Kent, who were looking for a left-handed rock at the top of the order to bat around. “Everyone has got the dream of playing for England of course,” he added. “But I’m a long way away from that, I’m just getting started and I want to play well for Kent. I know I’m 28 but look how long it took Mike Hussey to get into the Australia team and he had a great career. I’m fit and strong and have got it all ahead of me.” Hussey had to wait until he was 30 to make his Australia debut, despite a decade dominating the Sheffield Shield and went on to score more than 6,000 Test runs at an average of 51.