Interview

Benning looking for breakthrough

It's been a good breakthrough summer for James Benning

Jenny Roesler
Jenny Thompson
13-Sep-2006


Benning has been in blistering form this summer © Getty Images
It's been a good breakthrough summer for James Benning. He has been flowering in the short forms of the game, blasting Surrey into the Twenty20 finals and boosting them in the C&G and Pro40. He may have missed out on selection for England's Academy this time around, but give him a chance on the international stage and he could just blossom.
He already has international representative honours, having played for England from Under-15 to Under-19 level "It's an honour to play for your country." Since then he has spent time honing his game, with it all really coming together over last winter. Hopefully this winter he can kick on in developing.
A toe injury forced him out of the first XI early on this summer, although not before he struck a maiden hundred. Ally Brown seized his chance to re-establish himself, striking a double-hundred and a series of hundreds. Those, quite literally, are the breaks. But that won't stop Benning.
It was another injury which has forced him into the seconds. Swings and roundabouts though - he took over from Brown after an injury but his own injury forced him back to the twos once he'd recovered. "I was a bit gutted about that but I've just got to score runs consistently."
And he certainly knows how to pick his occasion. In the harsh glare of the TV cameras, Benning kept his cool to strike an unbeaten 189 and take Surrey to a very near-miss against Gloucestershire. He could have done no more.
That knock had journalists' pens twitching, of more importance was the affirmation for Benning that he could keep his cool when it mattered. "In years gone by I might have got myself out in the eighties". An opener, and in this case, very nearly a finisher.
But his sporting career was nearly finished before it was begun, when he cracked his left knee playing rugby, which was his sport of choice at the time. Indeed he had county honours, but the injury problem put paid to his ambitions on that field and left him with Hobson's choice.
Still, cricket would have made his dad, an ex-professional, proud. But rather than follow him to Middlesex (his father played a few years for them), again that decision was made for him by the fact that his school, Mill Hill, was in Surrey. He played for the youth team and progressed throughout the age groups.
Last winter it all came together under the watchful eye of Alan Butcher, who he says has been a great help over the last six years. He has also had a lot of technical support from Surrey stalwart Nadeem Shahid, who took over as second XI coach following retirement two years ago.
This winter provides another opportunity to up his game. I might go abroad to work on my game in Australia." He won't be joining the Academy in Perth but he's got the determination to succeed. "I want to expand my game further but there are no specific areas," he says. "I just want to work on my batting as a whole. Nobody is perfect, so you can always keep improving."

Jenny Thompson is assistant editor of Cricinfo