Re: Summer issue | Page 14

up and down, a good passer, had good vision but lacked a yard. I have to say at that level I lacked pace. I only played three football league games. Last one we had to beat Bristol Rovers, penultimate game, to go into the last game against Bristol City to get a draw to stay in the old third division, I was sub and we were two one down and I came on for the second half. I played really well, I made a goal. Then the last game I didn’t get picked and at the end of the season I got released by John Bond. It was a bitter pill to swallow because I got released by recorded delivery, a letter on a Monday. There was no phone call? No, and my father opened the letter and he was crying downstairs before I got to see it, when you’re 19 its tough. I was offered a place at Birmingham City but at the same time I got asked by my old coach from Glamorgan Cricket Club if I fancied a few games for the Seconds… I hadn’t picked a bat up for 18 months. I played against Tim Munton and Brian Macmillan, South African opening bowler and the England opening bowler at St Helens I got an 80-odd I think and a 60-odd. I had to borrow a bat because I didn’t have one. Then I played against Worcestershire the next game, got 80odd and then literally ended up having a two-month contract. They offered me a July and August of that year and then a one year the next year. I didn’t take up the Birmingham thing and that’s probably one of my regrets really but at eight and half stone and five foot four, I always felt I played as a boy rather than as a man at senior level. The cricket just went from there really. One year contracts, two year contracts. Played for Merthyr, Merthyr in the southern league for a couple of years and that was that. And, interestingly, 14 when that season finished, I had six months to find work before the next cricket season as at the time it was just six month contracts. My father had a haulage company and he said, “you’ve got a job with me and I’ll pay you cash right.” I had £35 off my old man. I can remember it like it was yesterday. £50 for Merthyr and then Saturday we’re playing Midland division of the southern league so there was a lot of travelling. Saturday morning I’d have to leave about nine for the game. He’d get me in at six because that’s when all his lorries were parked up, I’d put oil skins on and I’d have to steam clean the trailers for a fiver a trailer. I was like Bet Lynch, had grease all round my eyes and stuff like that. But looking back on it, that was the kind of, I suppose National Service, if you like, that you need sometimes when you’re young to make you appreciate things. Was your dad a sort of disciplinarian? No, we are best friends. Obviously he was very upset when the football finished but I think cricket was more of his love than football. So, he was probably more pleased actually. Yeah, because I played for Glamorgan I think, you know, so yeah, I think it was a planned out thing. “I’ll give him six months, hard six months, so he can value when he goes back, and get a good job really.” You spent a long time playing for Glamorgan, of course, your home county. Back in the day it wasn’t as professional as it is now. I always look at the first ten years of my career as being a little bit like rugby was before it went professional and round about the same time cricket kicked in as well with bleep tests, ice baths, things like that, and fitness became more of an issue in cricket. So, that was about mid-90s when rugby went the same way. So, when I first started, ’86, it was a lot of older players and it was harder to get them out of the side so you could get in. When you got in you felt under massive pressure to score runs. And I think if you talk to a lot of people from that era they’ll say that they were always looking over their shoulder because they’d get in for two years and then they’d be out and you were under pressure to score runs. If you look at my career, the first four or five years were all about playing three games and out and it’s very difficult now to perform under that. So, it took me about five years really to establish myself. I think it was in 1990 that I got 1,000 runs for the first time. I went to Australia and then South Africa. That last South African year was massive for me because I’d been out there one year before. I’d one year left on my I always look at the first ten years of my career as being a little bit like rugby was before it went professional. contract and I was sitting around twiddling my thumbs that winter just doing a bit of coaching so I rang up my mate in South Africa and said, “Look, will you take me back again?” And he said, “Yeah, come out. This year Eastern Transvaal has got a team as well, playing in the bowl, and they’re first class.” He said, “If you get a few runs you might get a chance, playing.” So, I went back that year and had a massive year in the Eastern Transvaal league. I averaged over 100 playing for them. I had five or six games for them and we travelled all around really. It was fantastic. I came back to the UK and I was in great nick and I nearly emigrated to South Africa that year. If my wife at the time had come over we probably would have. I’d have a job with Gillette South Africa, Now, obviously things have turned a bit… but I came back and I got 1,200 runs and averaged 40-odd that year for Glamorgan and then got a two-year contract followed by five or six purple patch years … so yeah, that was probably a turning point. That South Africa year was probably a big turning point. You got offered a renewal contract in 1998 and that was a tough decision for you to turn that down, wasn’t it? Yeah, disappointing that was. We’d won a championship the year before. I’d been vice-captain for three years and coming to the end of the year they said “You have got a year on your contract, do you want to roll it on to two?” And for some reason I never signed it, just never got round to it, and at the end of the year I was out of contract. They offered me a two year deal and I was 7 years capped. The rule of thumb is if you get to ten years you get a benefit. I just wanted to get to ten years. So, I said, “Look, can you give me a three-year contract?” And they categorically refused. The committee wouldn’t give me another year. So, I went to the chief exec and said, “Look, I’ll take less money if you can get me another year.” And he said, “I only do the money. I don’t do the years. The committee do the length of contracts.” They wouldn’t budge. So, I rang Chris Adams who happened to be at the end of season PCA (Professional Cricketers Association) do. I didn’t go that year. Ironically he happened to be talking to Matthew Maynard, who was captain of Glamorgan at the time, when I phoned him. I said, “Mate, will you take me on a five year contract?” And he said, “Yeah, I’ll ring you in the morning. I’ll come back to you.” competitions, championships together. There were all Welsh lads; you don’t get better than that really. But, the way I was welcomed down here superseded that no doubt. What made you think to ring Chris Adams? I was brought up by the sea…and I like Sussex. No more, no less than that. I’d never touted myself to anyone. I got 90-odd twice here one day in a championship game in that ’98 season so I thought, “You know, there’s half a chance.” I knew Chris quite well from playing against him. So, I just thought. “Well, where would I like to live?” I talked to Derby when we played against them and Dominic Cork and they said they would take me on a five year contract because obviously I was giving up the potential of a benefit. So, I thought, “Well, where would I like to live?” No disrespect to Derby, I wanted somewhere I could actually go and I thought, “Hove is lovely and I wouldn’t mind going down there.” So I just rang on the off chance. I’ve been looked after at Sussex in the two spells I’ve been here, it’s been fantastic. I’ll always a have a massive affinity with this place. You know, I played for Glamorgan, all my mates played there. We grew up together playing Welsh schools together. We won You always try and do the best you can but if the expectations are low then it’s a lot easier to enjoy something. I don’t think there are many people that have won two titles with two different countries. No, there’s about five or six maybe. I know Ramprakash and I think Tim Yeoman has won it as well. He played a couple years for England. Not many. I think there will be more now, to be honest. I think Tim Ambrose has now as well because he won 15