Denness, Croft And Ramprakash Honoured

Denness, Croft And Ramprakash Honoured

Robert Croft has been rewarded for two decades of wicket-taking for Glamorgan.

©Action Images / Alex Morton Livepic

Mark Ramprakash, Robert Croft and Mike Denness have been honoured in the New Year Honours list. Ramprakash and Croft, who both retired from first-class cricket in 2012 and have since moved into coaching, were awarded MBEs, while Denness was given an OBE.

Since playing for and captaining England, Denness has been an ICC match referee and, most recently, president of Kent CCC.

David Collier, the ECB chief executive, said of Denness: "The award to Mike Denness is a fitting recognition for a long and distinguished career in cricket which has seen him fulfil a variety of key roles.”

Of Ramprakash and Croft, he added, “Mark Ramprakash was among the most supremely gifted batsmen of his generation and can be justifiably proud of being one of an elite band of cricketers who have scored 100 first-class hundreds.

"Very few cricketers achieve the feat of scoring more than 10,000 first-class runs and taking more than 1,000 first-class wickets as Robert Croft did for Glamorgan during a 23-year career. His honour is richly deserved."

Croft and Ramprakash have seemingly been rewarded for their immensely successful county careers, as well as their contributions in international cricket at a largely unsuccessful time for the national side.

Both men announced their retirements from county cricket towards the end of the 2012 season, with Croft moving into a coaching role with Glamorgan and Ramprakash moving back to his old county Middlesex to become their batting coach.

Ramprakash told Sky Sports News that receiving the MBE “eclipses all that I have achieved in the game”, while Croft said, “I don’t think it has sunk in yet. I’m still just a Carmarthenshire boy who did quite well at cricket.”

© Cricket World 2012