One for the Future - Nico Reifer
Interview on 18 October 2020 (5 min read)
For a PlayStation mad teenager, Surrey’s batting all-rounder Nico Reifer has had several rich cricketing experiences, having played representative cricket in three different continents.
Hailing from the famous Reifer family in Barbados, cricket was ever present in his childhood. Uncles Elvis (Barbados and Hampshire), George (Barbados and Scotland) and Leslie (Barbados), all played First Class cricket. Cousins Floyd and Raymon (who was unlucky not to make the Test side on the recent England tour) went one step further, playing Test cricket, with Floyd even captaining the West Indies. Another cousin Leslie is an international umpire.
Despite this background, there is no sense of entitlement from Reifer. He is naturally reserved at first, but his sense of humour comes through when he recalls being hit as a child in the ribs while facing cousin Raymon, almost ten years his senior, in the nets. At the age of 7, he joined the prestigious Wanderers Club in Christ Church Barbados, a club that can claim various past and present West Indian cricketers, including Dennis Atkinson, Keith Boyce, Pedro Collins, Kraigg Brathwaite and the current skipper Jason Holder. He commends the structure of the club in that it “helps a lot of young cricketers develop”, especially the opportunity on Saturdays to observe older players, in his case the likes of Holder and Brathwaite. Aside from his family and the club, he mentions former Australian captains Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke as his early cricketing heroes.
By his early teens Reifer was following the path for future success; he was Barbados U15 captain and toured England as part of the U15 West Indies squad, where he was their most valuable player. Hungry to gain more experience in different environments, Reifer obtained a scholarship to the illustrious Whitgift School in Surrey, England. The quality of cricket at Whitgift can be deduced from the remarkable fact that three of England’s current international opening batsmen, Rory Burns, Dominic Sibley and Jason Roy were former students. In addition, Whitgift can boast Ryan Patel, James Smith and Laurie Evans as current Surrey players.
Settling into a new country was tough at first for Reifer, but he is effusive in his praise for former Surrey and Glamorgan cricketer and his coach at Whitgift, Neil Kendrick, whom he describes as a “father figure”. Kendrick facilitated his training with Surrey and helped him with off field challenges. It is a credit to Kendrick, Whitgift and of course Reifer himself that he secured three ‘A’s in his A levels, while excelling at cricket. In terms of his batting, Reifer was technically sound enough to play in English conditions, he just had to make the obvious small adjustments and “try to play the ball as late as possible”. Initially, the focus at Whitgift was on his batting, but in his later years while playing for Surrey’s 2nd XI, he worked on his pace bowling.
Last year, Surrey awarded Reifer a one year rookie contract; given their Director of Cricket is Alec Stewart, a legendary England cricketer and the ultimate professional, it reflects well on Reifer’s talent and character. It was also Stewart, who handed Reifer his debut cap last winter in Perth, for Midland–Guildford, a competitive Australian Grade cricket club, where Stewart learnt his cricket as a young professional. On the field, Reifer found the extra bounce in the wickets easy to adjust to (although he was surprised how hard the ball hit the bat), but managing his body for the combination of gym, training and match play was an initial challenge. Through helpful advice from England-capped Scott Borthwick, whom Reifer trained with regularly, he was able to overcome this challenge. From the way he talks it is clear that he considers Borthwick a good friend.
When we ask about his post Christmas purple patch for the 2nd Grade that resulted in him topping the run charts and averages (407 at 81.4), he reflects that unwinding back in Barbados over Christmas was beneficial. Moreover, during that break he had the opportunity to represent the Wanderers CC against an international standard Ireland team and impressed with a stylish 26-ball 34. This meant that he returned to Midland-Guildford refreshed and full of confidence.
With only one overseas player allowed in each side, Reifer was unable to play with Borthwick around. When Borthwick was unavailable for a match, the in-form Reifer had the chance to play in the 1st Grade in an uncustomary opening batsman role. Rather than hesitate, he simply thought “why not?” and was up to the challenge, scoring 47 (unluckily given out) and 37. He enjoyed observing how two of the opposition batsmen, D’Arcy Short and Cameron Bancroft, were effective despite their contrasting styles.
As part of the Surrey setup, Reifer has benefitted from picking the brains of the likes of Jason Roy and Rory Burns. He is confident enough to trust the foundation of his own game, but wise enough to adopt the little suggestions from others to enhance his game further. He relished the opportunity to play with overseas star Morne Morkel, although the opposition 2nd XI batsmen would have certainly got a shock! Reifer’s short-term goal is to make his debut and then cement his place in Surrey’s 1st XI in all three formats and for the moment that is his primary focus. When pressed on longer term ambitions, he hopes to one day play both franchise and international cricket (he likes all three formats with Test cricket his favourite).
It was interesting to hear him highlight the differences between the training methods in the three places, Barbados, Surrey and Perth. He was at first “amazed at how many people turned up to training” in Perth and felt it was the most outwardly competitive of the three. He thinks that Surrey and Barbados are quite similar in structure, although the training is more rigid in Barbados relative to Surrey, where the onus is on the player to decide what is best for him. There is a maturity in the measured way he answers each question that belies his age.
Furthermore, he is a rounded character who is keen to give back to the community; he has assisted with Surrey’s ACE Programme, the brainchild of former England cricketer and current Director of Women’s Cricket at Surrey, Ebony Rainford-Brent. The Programme was launched at the start of this year and aims to re-engage and provide cricket opportunities for the Black British community.
At CricVestigate, we will be keeping a close eye on how this young, personable and talented cricketer’s career unfolds. There is a long way to go and plenty of hard work to put in and no one is more aware of this than the man himself. Nico Reifer’s future is exciting – remember the name.