The cricketer who's very keen to surpass the others? (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
long stop
'the cricketer who's very keen' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether it can be defined by this definition.
'surpass the others?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'surpass' could be 'top' (topping is a kind of surpassing) and 'top' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'longs' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for long stop that I've seen is " Sportsman on the field".)