A CRICKET LIFE

The Lancashire, Hampshire and England batter on his early influences, playing in a golden era for county cricket and falling foul of Duncan Fletcher

Interview James Wallace

PHOTO BY PATRICK EAGAR

" I called Duncan [Fletcher] and David [Graveney] but heard nothing. I must have left God knows how many messages for Duncan and didn’t even get a call back. They didn’t give me a response or a single reason

Driveway to success

I was very fortunate having two older brothers, Mark and Pete, who played the game and that is really how I got into cricket. My dad managed to make us a cricket net on part of the driveway. He laid a concrete base, got hold of some old rubber conveyor belts and put them down on top. It played brilliantly! We are actually going back to where I started, Warrington Sports Club, in a couple of days. Unfortunately my dad died in February, and with Covid we could only have 30 people at the funeral, so we are going back there this weekend, an old Lancashire XI to play a Warrington select XI in a memorial game. He was an instrumental influence on me and my brothers.

Finding comfort in the Roses

My mum was also a huge influence and she died, prematurely really, in 2001. I remember vividly playing in the Roses match after her death. It was really emotional. I somehow managed to play very well – 70-odd and then a ton in the second innings – and it really struck home how lucky we all were to be professional cricketers. There was great camaraderie and support on both sides. We lost the game but it was a great match. The reception from the Lancashire and Yorkshire players and both sets of fans was very special and memorable. I had a realisation that there are more important things than cricket but that I was very lucky and that I should really try to enjoy it as much as possible.

Life at Lancs

The world was a different place when I was starting out at Lancashire. There was a lot of hierarchy, you had to earn your stripes. As is often the case in professional team sport, there are players nearing the end of their careers at the same time as players coming through and cutting their teeth, and that can cause friction. It was quite a hard school. That was good in many ways as it toughened you up. There was a period of transition and then the team of the 90s was a great team to play in. We became a very successful one-day side and we were pretty much all homegrown players. The overseas players we had were also very loyal; Wasim Akram in particular and later Murali, who was outstanding. We became a really strong outfit and we really got on. There was no backstabbing or bickering. We played hard and we celebrated really well, shall we say.