Surrey staff friendships helped Richard Johnson settle quickly in his new role

Director of cricket Alec Stewart, deputy head coach Vikram Solanki, fast bowling consultant Geoff Arnold, fielding consultant Chris Taylor and lead strength and conditioning coach Darren Veness are all people Johnson has known for quite some time

In so many ways, moving from Middlesex to Surrey last winter felt for Richard Johnson like the most natural thing in the cricketing world – despite his previous long association with Surrey’s closest rivals, for whom he was bowling coach for a decade.

And that he has been so quick to settle at the Kia Oval is down to the close relationships he enjoys with a number of key personnel at Surrey.

Director of cricket Alec Stewart, deputy head coach Vikram Solanki, fast bowling consultant Geoff Arnold, fielding consultant Chris Taylor and lead strength and conditioning coach Darren Veness are all people Johnson has known for quite some time.

“When things came to an end for me at Middlesex it was Alec who was the first to contact me and say he wanted me to come to work at Surrey,” said Johnson.

“I’ve known Alec for many years and was lucky enough to play Test cricket with him. He’s an icon of the game, and ‘caught Stewart bowled Johnson’ was a career highlight for me as an England cricketer.

“In fact, I was coached by Neil Stewart – Alec’s brother – when I attended the Micky Stewart Cricket School at East Molesey, and Neil was always on to me during my county playing days that I should be representing Surrey.

“That’s mainly because I played for Sunbury in the Surrey Championship and was born in Surrey, although Sunbury have always been a Middlesex club.

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“But, when I came to Surrey last winter, it wasn’t just Alec who I knew well. I’ve known Vikram Solanki since we were both 14 or 15 and playing England age group matches together, and I’ve also played one-day internationals with him.

“Darren Veness I got to know very well when I moved to Somerset in 2001 and had six years there. I’m also a godfather to one of his children.

“Chris Taylor is someone I’ve got to know from working together on England Performance Programme tours and Geoff Arnold I’ve always got on with from way back when I first started out as a player.

“He used to coach me when I played for England A. One of the first things I said when I started here was that I was looking forward to working with ‘Horse’ because we’ve talked so much about bowling over the years.”

Johnson, who took 528 first-class wickets at 28.58 runs apiece in a career which began at Middlesex in 1991, and played in three Tests and 10 one-day internationals for England, has also struck up an excellent working relationship with Michael Di Venuto, Surrey’s head coach.

“When I arrived here he was the only member of the coaching and back room staff that I didn’t really know but we soon realised we have the same beliefs in terms of the way we coach and so the whole process of coming to Surrey has been seamless,” he said.

“It’s such an exciting opportunity for me, and what has really struck me is the sheer size of the club, and especially the business side of things at the Oval and the huge difference in the budgets, for a start.”

Signed as an assistant coach on a three-year contract, with responsibility for all the club’s bowlers, the 44-year-old Johnson says the fast bowlers in Surrey’s first-team squad – headed by the senior trio of Morne Morkel, Rikki Clarke and Jade Dernbach – are a highly impressive group, but that his job is not just to help and support them but to bring through the next generation of the club’s bowlers.

“I believe that you have to treat every individual bowler differently in the way you coach them, technically and on the mental side, but the basis of everything is a good technique that is grooved and therefore stands up under pressure,” said Johnson.

Courtesy of the ECB reporters network

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