this attention flattering, he had more or less abandoned any hope of being recalled to the England team, given the present selection policy targeted towards youth. In 2008, Ramprakash scored a century in his first innings of the season – his third consecutive first-class century, all against Lancashire – and another (his 99th) two matches later. He finally scored his 100th 100 against Yorkshire at Headingley on 2 August 2008, becoming only the 25th player to reach this mark. It mirrored his very first century, also scored at Headingley. As of March 2022, he is the last cricketer anywhere to achieve 100 hundreds in first-class cricket, and with the increasing focus of higher-ability cricketers on limited-over forms of the game, he is likely to remain the last. He then hit 200 not out vs Somerset to get his 101st first-class hundred. He was also in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, when the England and Wales Cricket Board banned him for two County Championship matches, for losing his famous temper and repeatedly swearing at an umpire. In 2009, there was, yet again, much media speculation that Ramprakash should receive an England call up for the final Test match of the 2009 Ashes series. He averaged 90 for Surrey in 2009. In 2010, Ramprakash again emerged as county cricket's leading run-getter – albeit in the second division. After 16 matches and 28 innings he ended the season with 1595 runs at an average of 61.34, including 5 hundreds with a highest score of 248. In 2011, Ramprakash was suspended by Surrey for their CB40 game with Northants after he showed "serious dissent" to umpires in the previous match when he had been given out 'obstructing the field.' In 2012, Ramprakash was picked to captain MCC in their match against Lancashire opening the 2012 English cricket season. By the time of his retirement as a cricketer from all forms of the game on 4 July 2012 he had scored 114 hundreds, 16th in the all-time list of first-class century-makers, just three behind Sir Donald Bradman's 117. In an article in the Daily Telegraph marking his retirement, entitled "Mark Ramprakash: A champion of elegance in helmet and pads", Jim White wrote "...with him will pass into history one of the most beautiful and stylish sights ever seen on a sporting field: Ramprakash taking a long pace forward out of the crease and