Alleyway cricket certainly did help me on first-class circuit!
THERE’S been a challenge on social media in recent weeks asking people to name the five cricketers who got them in to the sport.
A range of names have appeared, so I thought I’d have a crack at doing it - five heroes and influences on my cricket career.
Some of them might not appear on everyone’s list, but here goes, in no particular order.
ANGUS FRASER
He made his England debut in the 1989 Ashes series against Australia and he was sensational. This was at a time when the Aussies started to dominate, but Angus gave it as good as he got.
I could certainly relate to him. The way he bowled was unspectacular, but he valued a lot of the things I did.
I quickly realised that my way to get on was to not go for many runs, and that was something Angus prided himself on.
He was also grumpy, miserable and seemed in pain the whole time he was playing - he never looked like he was enjoying it. I can relate to that!
I was lucky enough to play against him and he was as miserable on the pitch as I’d hoped.
He became director of cricket at Middlesex in my last year there, so I got to know him a little bit and he was great company.
He wouldn’t be classed as a naturally gifted cricket, like a Darren Gough, but he made the most of what he had.
He was the shining light in that 1989 Ashes and his stats in his first-class career were impressive.
SIR RICHARD HADLEE
WHEN I was a child, mum and dad bought me a couple of cricket books, one of which was an annual. Richard Hadlee and Clive Rice featured heavily in it because they were dominant for Nottinghamshire at the time.
So Hadlee became one of my heroes, naturally, probably because he was also a seamer.
He was a master of what he did. The New Zealand side he played in wasn’t the strongest, but he carried their attack for years - and thrived on it.
Ok, so he bowled on some helpful wickets at Trent Bridge, but he was always challenging the batsman and asking questions.
Hadlee had this obsession to just keep getting better and turned out to be an absolute gun bowler.
MALCOLM MARSHALL
I USED to go on holidays with my friend Eddie Pilmore and wherever we went we’d try to watch some cricket.
One year we were in Bournemouth and went to
Dean Park - where I finished my Staffordshire career against Dorset in 1998 - to watch Hampshire.
Marshall was playing in the game and it was enthralling to see a player you’d seen on television bowling outswingers, inswingers, bouncers and all at a great pace.
He’d have been clocking some good figures on a speed gun on this day and I remember him sorting out Mike Gatting a treat.
Two outswingers, followed by a booming inswinger - Gatt padded up, stumps went everywhere.
Marshall obviously didn’t play on many green seamers in the Caribbean, but he was part of a formidable four-man West Indies pace attack.
They had a wealth of talent to pick from, but Marshall was pretty much a constant.
When I was a youngster at Derbyshire he came in to coach us one day. We had a couple of hours in the nets, talked cricket, and it was really enlightening.
For me, he’s the best fast bowler to have ever played the game.
ROBIN SMITH
THIS is probably not the most conventional pick as I wasn’t much cop with a bat in my hand.
Robin was a Gray Nicholls man, and as a kid I had a Gray Nicholls Powerspot, and I just loved watching him bat.
The bravery that he showed stood out for me. When he first came in he’d take on quick bowlers and England had never really had that before.
He’d be stood there with no visor on his helmet, get hit and just carry on. And that square cut of his? What an absolute dream.
Robin was an obsessive character. I’ve played against him and you’d turn up at the ground at 8.30am and he’d already be there on the bowling machine.
I played a game for Warwickshire against Hampshire and it was going nowhere towards the end of day four.
I turned to mid-on and said ‘I’m going to see what his square cut really looks like’.
I deliberately bowled a wide long hop and he jumped all over it - and the power he unleashed in that square cut was phenomenal.