Ten Years On - Remembered and Very Much Missed

As Wisden states, his career stats ''give few clues. Simply seeing him play was the real measure: he gave genuine pleasure to all who watched, whether from the dressing-room or the stand.''

Benjamin Caine (Ben) Hollioake - born 11 November 1977, died 23 March 2002.

A very sad loss, and I can't believe ten years have passed.

I remember little of him playing, unfortunately. How would you rate him?

Ben was a supremely talented cricketer who after his explosive entrance to the international scene struggled at first to really kick on. However, he looked to be finally fulfilling his talent when the tragedy occurred.

A sad sad loss, they're some poignant remembrances of the occasion in Stewart and Hussain's autobiographies (England were playing a test match in NZ at the time).

An incredibly natural talent. Real flair with such a good eye for the ball.

Looked at first as if he was going to have the cricket world at his feet when he burst onto the England scene as a teenager. Sadly, his form then fell away and he lost his Surrey place. Sadder still, it looked as if he was rediscovering his magic touch when he was killed in a car accident at the cruelly young age of 24.

He was a useful seam bowler but it was his batting that I expected to really mark him out. I know the Corporal saw him excel with the bat for Surrey in a one day final - hope he'll confirm that and contribute to this thread later on.

A lot of the tributes from team mates refer to his laid back character. I certainly wouldn't dispute that but it wasn't my experience. I briefly met him once (around 1999). Whilst he was very polite and pleasant, it was clear he was unhappy and anxious about his form. I told him that I had enjoyed seeing him play at Guildford the previous summer. I'll always be glad that I was able to tell him that.

Yes - a great loss. As Guildford says I was fortunate to see his match winning innings for Surrey in a limited final at Lords against Kent. Effortless, clean hitting completely took the game away from the opposition. We thought we were watching the emergence of a new great.

As I mentioned on another thread a while back, that was my best cricket watching moment. I likened Ben's appearance to a meteorite that burned bright but burnt out far too quickly....

Was starting to fulfill his potential before he sadly lost his life. Had started to make good contributions with both bat and ball in ODIs, remember him doing well in a miserable home series (vs Pakistan and Aus) in 2001.

Will always be remembered for his debut. Batting up the order (number 3?) he made a brisk 50 odd playing some great strokes against the the Aussies. If you ever want to see some of it there's a DVD series "6 of the best". The 90's one also has Gooch's 333 and Malcolm's 9 wickets so well worth checking out.

Its amazing to think he would be 34 now - I think he'd have become a mainstay in ODIs and would have loved to have see a team with him and Flintoff at their peak. Sadly not to be.

Welcome VTR - a very timely first post....

He certainly had great potential. Whether he would have become a front-line international is impossible to tell - by the time of his tragic death there was a feeling that he wasn't developing quite as had been hoped after he started off so young in 1997, but he would definitely have been a star in county cricket.

Shelsey93 wrote:He certainly had great potential. Whether he would have become a front-line international is impossible to tell - by the time of his tragic death there was a feeling that he wasn't developing quite as had been hoped after he started off so young in 1997, but he would definitely have been a star in county cricket.

Shelsey - the point you have missed is that he was rediscovering his form at the time of his death.

Agree and disagree Shelsey. No he didn't kick on all from his debut in 97 and was subsequesntly dropped. But in 2001 he started to get some runs and was bowling economically with clever variations.

I think he was on a similar trajectory to Flintoff who was also debuted very young (though he didn't do very well!) and only started to fulfill his potential at 24/25. I think its tough for any teenager coming into international cricket, can't think of any that have ever done that well for England. But what we have seen is many young players come in, be dropped and come back a lot better e.g. Flintoff, Bell, Harmison

There's an excellent compilation of tributes on the official Surrey website. I particularly appreciated the one from Alex Tudor.

Corporal - spot on about the official Surrey website. A totally fitting and deserved tribute. We all rightly moan about the website from time to time but they got this one absolutely right.

Also agree with you about Tudor's tribute. Informative and moving. [Free from the self-perceived pressures of playing and over anxieties about his fitness, I believe Tudor could become an excellent youth team coach for Surrey.]

VTR - a warm welcome to the cricket boards here. I think your comparison with Flintoff is particularly appropriate. Unlike Shelsey, I believe Hollioake would have been more likely to have become a star in international cricket than county cricket.

Great cricketer great person sadly missed by me and our team mates

Had the potential but we will sadly never know how good he could have been. more importantly, a young man died too soon.

cricinfo are reporting that Ben Hollioake's old kit etc have been stolen from his parents house.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/current/story/561685.html

Nice!

Disgraceful

yep, seems some guy broke into the basement storage at their Perth home and nicked Ben's ols shirts and such, some people are really sick . There's been a big Twitter campaign about it apparently set in motion, and some of the kit has already been recovered.