Early life

The son of an Australian engineer and his Indonesian wife, Ben Hollioake was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1977. Hollioake got his cricketing start in Hong Kong, where the family lived for the two years until he was five, before they moved on to England. He played junior cricket in Sydney, especially in the Gladesville District Cricket Association, representing Gladesville District when he was just 9 years old, and was well renowned for his lightning fast bowling and talent with the bat – even at that young age. Hollioake moved to England in 1984, along with his older brother Adam. He was educated at Millfield Preparatory School and later at Millfield.

Cricketing career

A graceful batsman who was capable of massive hitting, and a useful medium pacer with a knack of taking wickets, Ben joined his brother at Surrey in 1994. Hollioake made his first-class debut for Surrey in 1996, taking four 4–74 against Yorkshire at Acklam Park, Middlesbrough, and was awarded the NBC Denis Compton Award that same year. In May 1997, aged 19, he was called up to England's ODI squad to play Australia. Making his debut batting at number three for the final game of the series at Lord's, Hollioake struck 63 runs off 48 balls and was named Man of the Match. England won the three-match series 3–0. His performance led to the media comparing him to the great English all-rounder Ian Botham.

The following July, Hollioake produced another Man of the Match performance at Lords, this time taking two wickets and scoring 98 runs from 112 deliveries as Surrey defeated Kent in the final of the Benson & Hedges Cup.

England were not performing well in the 1997 Ashes series when Ben and Adam made their Test debuts together, on 7 August 1997. England was losing the six-Test series 2–1 when the Hollioake brothers were selected for the fifth Test, becoming the fifth set of brothers to play for England in the same Test and the third to make a debut together after the Grace and Hearne brothers. Aged 19 years and 269 days, Hollioake was England's youngest Test player since Brian Close in 1949. Losing his place in the team soon after, he toured Sri Lanka that winter with the England A team, scoring two centuries. Ben played one more Test match, against Sri Lanka in 1998,^[9] scoring 14 and 0 with the bat, and bowling two for 105.^[1]

The following year, Surrey awarded Hollioake his county cap, but his form began to waver and, by August 2000, he could not command a regular place in the county side that had won back-to-back county championships. After working hard on his technique during the winter break, Hollioake delivered several impressive performances for Surrey that led to his recall to the English ODI side in 2001.^[1]

In July 2001 he was once more man of the match in the final of the Benson and Hedges Cup at Lord's, where he scored 73 runs and helped Surrey to victory over Gloucestershire.^[10]

Steve James wrote in the Daily Telegraph:^[10]

At times he was so laid back as to be infuriating... but there was a remarkable warmth and gentleness in his character. Amongst the youngs