Spriegel shines for Surrey

Matthew Spriegel scored 301 first-class runs in the championship this season

Matthew Spriegel believes his role as captain of Loughborough UCCE prepared him for the challenges he faced in the 2008 season with Surrey.

The 21-year-old made his first-class debut for his university side in 2007 and then led them against his Surrey team-mates in the opening match of this season.

He went on to play nine matches for Surrey in the LV County Championship, scoring 301 runs and taking four wickets with his off-spin. He claimed a further 11 wickets in limited-overs matches, and topped the county`s NatWest Pro40 batting averages with 172 runs at 86.

“It was hugely satisfying,” he told ecb.co.uk. “If, at the start of the season, anyone had said I would play the amount of cricket that I did then I definitely wouldn`t have believed them.

“To justify my place in the side, especially in one-day cricket, was very pleasing.”

He confirmed that a more mature approach to both cricket and life had enabled him to perform this summer, with his time at Loughborough making him a more rounded person.

“I think being a leader of any team is going to test all your characteristics as a person,” he said. “Coming to Loughborough and being captain in my Freshers year was a big test for the first couple of games.

“I think the last couple of years I have grown up massively as a person. I think it has definitely helped me in dealing with the pressures and the situations I have come up against this summer.”

Spriegel sweeps during his impressive half-century against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in July

Surrey did not have a particularly positive season as they finished bottom in both the championship and the Twenty20 Cup, second from bottom in the Friends Provident Trophy and mid-table in the NatWest Pro40.

“Results-wise, it was a very disappointing summer,” Spriegel agreed. “It was obviously disappointing to get relegated from the first division and not do that well in any of the one-day competitions.

“No one likes losing and once you play at the level of professional sport, you have to be a winner. You have to strive to win because that is why you are playing the sport.”

Spriegel had not spent much time in the Surrey dressing room before this season, but even he could sense that morale was flagging as they continually failed to register a victory.

“It is only natural that if you are not winning games it is going to affect team spirit,” he agreed. "It is only so long that you can brush off defeats and poor performances and not let it affect the atmosphere in the dressing room.

“On the whole we have stuck together well and kept each other going, but as the season went on and it became obvious what was going to happen, the dressing room was getting lower and lower.”

However, Spriegel was able to take heart from his own contributions.

Spriegel was used as more of a bowler in one-day cricket

“Not winning does detract from your own personal performances,” he admitted. “But having had a couple of weeks to reflect on what I have achieved this summer, I am proud of what I have done.

“I think I will remember the championship fifty at Notts and the one-day game against Warwickshire, where to do well in a winning situation was pleasing. I have got better figures and stats in other games, but they were generally in losing causes.”

Spriegel has been used more as a batsman in the championship and bowler in one-day cricket, but he does not feel confused by such an undefined role.

“I think I can do a job at both,” he said. “It shows that they obviously believe that I can be an all-rounder.

“Growing up I was more of a batsman and bowling was a second string, but in the last three or four years I have worked hard on my bowling.

“I would have liked to have contributed a bit more with the ball in championship cricket and a bit more with the bat in one-day cricket.”

He may well get his chance next season as Surrey aim to use several of their less-experienced players on a more regular basis.

“The club has now got a really good chance of rebuilding and playing some younger players,” Spriegel added. “If things don`t happen straight away, I don`t think there is any need to panic.

“We need to make sure that we have a Surrey side that is going to be able to perform well in the next five years and not just in the next couple.”