Ollie Pope

Oliver John Douglas Pope (born 2 January 1998) is an English cricketer who plays for Surrey County Cricket Club. He is a right-handed batsman who also sometimes plays as a wicket-keeper.


On 26 August 2016, Pope signed a two-year professional contract with Surrey. Two days later, he made his List A debut for Surrey in the semi-final of the 2016 Royal London One-Day Cup against Yorkshire.


He made his first-class debut on 28 March 2017 for Surrey against Oxford MCCU as part of the Marylebone Cricket Club University fixtures. Pope scored his maiden List A half-century on 7 May 2017 against Sussex. He made his Twenty20 debut for Surrey in the 2017 NatWest t20 Blast on 7 July 2017.

In August 2018, he was added to England's squad for the second Test against India.

It is less than 18 months since he made his first-class debut, for Surrey against Oxford MCC University in The Parks – as a wicketkeeper at number seven, from where he made a near run-a-ball 38 in his first innings of a drawn fixture. In his first professional match, in August 2016, he helped Surrey reach a Lord’s final in the Royal London Cup – showing no nerves, by making 20 in a 19-run semi-final win over Yorkshire at Headingley.

Pope will be joining up again with his Surrey friend, long-time age-group team-mate, and fellow 20-year-old, Sam Curran. There will be echoes too of his first county championship match, less than a year ago in late August last summer when – for the first time for any club since the Second World War – he was one of four teenagers in the home line-up against Middlesex at The Oval. Curran, 152 days younger, was one of the others alongside Amar Virdi and Ryan Patel. Ben Foakes took the gloves and also made 73, batting one position above Pope. He has long been in the reckoning for a Test debut too, and was in England’s Ashes squad last winter, but at the age of 25 it seems the ex-Essex wicketkeeper is about to see Pope get there before him.

Youth is no barrier to international experience these days, and Pope made sure he took his opportunity when he flew Down Under last winter to play Grade cricket for Campbelltown-Camden in Sydney. While England were losing the Ashes 4-0, he set about scoring plenty of runs – finishing just three short of 1,000 in 23 matches.