Rikki Clarke has officially left Surrey County Cricket Club and signed a two year contract as captain of Derbyshire.

The former vice captain of Surrey rejected the Club’s contract offer at the beginning of September. He was officially out of contract with the Club as of 30 September and as a consequence was free to sign the two year contract with Derbyshire.

Clarke made his first class debut for Surrey in 2002 and that season helped his side pick up the Club’s third County Championship title in four years. He was rewarded with the highly acclaimed Cricket Writers’ Young Player of the Year Award in the same year and was taken with the England squad to the ICC Champions Trophy In Sri Lanka.

Although he played no part in the Champions Trophy, he made his One Day International debut the following summer, where he became the first bowler in England for 31 years to take a wicket with his first ball. His International career never took off but he was selected on two senior tours and a number of England Academy and A tours.

For Surrey, he remained an ever present member of the first team. His powerful middle order striking and useful spells of bowling combined with electric fielding always helped the Brown Caps into useful positions and this lead to him being capped in 2005.

He was made vice captain in 2006 and in the absence of the injured Mark Butcher lead a very successful Twenty20 Cup campaign as Surrey made the finals day. There is no doubt that a personal highlight of his career with Surrey was his maiden first class double century against Somerset during the Surrey Cricket Festival at Guildford Cricket Club.

Sadly Clarke could not emulate his performance in 2006 this season and felt he had to give up the vice captaincy in an attempt to concentrate on his own personal performance. Shortly after, he was struck down with illness, meaning that he played his last match for the Club at the beginning of August in the NatWest Pro40.

In 65 first class matches for Surrey, Clarke scored 3839 runs at an average of 42.18 and took 88 wickets at 42.69.

After signing with Derbyshire, Clarke said: "My ambition is to play for England again and I think Derbyshire is the best place for me to achieve that ambition."

He added: “The club is looking to go forward and that really excited me. The chance to be captain played a part in my decision because I have always wanted to be a leader but I was more interested in where Derbyshire want to go.”

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