The Real Young London

Unlike many of his teenage contemporaries in this metropolis, who choose to have lingering ambitions to play premier league football or becoming a hip-hop artist because of the huge financial incentives, Chris Jordan has been on the Ball for Surrey ever since he was spotted in his native Barbados.

He was spotted by former England test player Bill Athey, who was scouting for a recipient of a cricket scholarship back in England, at Dulwich College.

Chris Jordan in action for Surrey

Chris was inspired by two legendary West Indies fast bowlers; Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose during the 1990s, along with his father who first introduced him to the game as a child.

Also, coming from an island in the Caribbean that produced some of the greatest names to have graced the field of play such as Sir Frank Worrell, Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Clyde Walcott, Sir Garfield Sobers, Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith, Conrad Hunte, Seymour Nurse, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall to name but a few.

Following Chris's chance to attend Dulwich College in Surrey, second XI coach Nadeem Shahid became impressed after watching him in action and contacted first team coach Alan Butcher about the all-round ability of this young cricketer.

Within a few days Jordan was practicing in the same nets as the English counties run machine Mark Ramprakash.

He impressed them, and continued to do so – blazing into Surrey’s first team at the business end of the 2007 English Cricket County Championship that helped them to safety. He immediately looked the part.

Despite being qualified to play for England by early 2010, based on the virtues of his English grandmother who currently lives in Hertfordshire, he is still a young Barbadian at heart.

He also feels another current young player to look out for in the future is Yorkshire cricketer Adil Rashid because of his batting ability with a sound technique as well as for being a very good Leg Spin bowler.

With London cricket academies both at Surrey and Middlesex, with non-stop action, excitement with the amount of money in Twenty20 cricket, plus the extensive media coverage, this could all prove to be a great incentive to introduce inner-city kids to develop their skills in the game.

If this young all-rounder, who has the ability to bat in the middle order and already bowls at a genuine pace, then there is every chance he will keep improving and may soon have some tough choices and big decisions to make in the near future.