...summer but remains determined to play for Yorkshire for as long as he can. You sent in enough questions to keep Craig talking until September. I started by asking him about his early career and his time with the England team.

You had a health scare after collapsing in Scarborough in 2000. It’s been said that after this you played with more adventure and were a better cricketer. Would you agree with that?

I really think that was the case. I was really, really harsh on myself and that was getting in my way. I had high standards and when I didn’t do well I really beat myself up and got down. I was very inconsistent as a young player and sometimes if I went through a bad period I’d make it worse for myself. When that scare did happen I fell over in the street and I thought I’d had a heart attack. For the three weeks when I had all the tests and when waiting for the results I had people saying ‘yeah that happened to one of my mates and he had a brain tumour’. So I went through a period of mental torture. When I got the all clear I thought **** I’ve been worrying about cricket and there’s more important things. It put cricket into perspective and I just thought what a life, I’m playing cricket and I should just go out there and enjoy it. If you try your best all the time sometimes you’re not going to succeed, but just don’t let it get to you, just play and enjoy your cricket, because I really thought I wasn’t going to play again at one stage. After the health scare I was just in a more relaxed frame of mind.

Under Hussain’s leadership you seemed to play better for England than you had under Atherton who seemed to have a lack of faith in you as an all-rounder. Was it Hussain and Fletcher’s increased belief in your abilities that was the main reason for your improved form?

Definitely. I’ve got massive respect for Nasser Hussain for the way he and Duncan Flecther treated me and for the belief they showed in me. That rubs off when you’ve got your captain and coach backing you it always helps. When I played under Athers, it wasn’t his fault. It was Ray Illingworth who was pushing me forward trying to get me in there, whereas Athers hadn’t really seen much of me so he was a bit hesitant. I haven’t got any grudges towards Athers, he was given the side and had to get on with it and it was just that situation.

Do you think your England career started too early?

Yeah definitely – probably two years too early, you know I’d only been bowling quick for about a year / year and a half and then I was thrust in as the next Ian Botham type thing. If I’d maybe had another two years playing county cricket and an A Tour or something I would probably have played more and maybe had less injuries.

Was the Botham tag a mill stone around your neck?

Every all-rounder that came in it was like ‘you’re the next Botham kind of thing.’ It was just press hype and that’s how I reacted to it. Everyone that came in to the team as an all-rounder had it so I realised it was the press and I just had to do what I could do really.

Who was the best captain you have played under? Did you take anything from him when doing the Yorkshire job?

Probably Nasser, I thought he had a very good cricket brain although his attitude was sometimes probably a bit too intense. That’s what I tried not to do. He put a lot of pressure on his players through his body language. You play for England because you’re a good player. No one means to bowl a half-volley. Sometimes you’d bowl a bad ball when Nasser was captain and you’d turn ‘round and he’d be throwing his cap down and you’d be thinking ‘oh jeez here we go.’ That puts pressure on players and that’s what I tried not to do, but apart from that he was very, very good.

On the morning of the C&G semi-final against Hampshire in 2005 you had to run three miles to the ground as the coach driver couldn't drive after a long trek down from Lancashire the night before (although he hadn't told you all that). Is that one of your worst moments in cricket and can you see the funny side now?

Yeah definitely, even at the time everyone was pretty relaxed about it as it was totally out of our control. It was one of those mistakes that had happened and on the morning of the game everyone was thinking that there wasn’t much we could do about it, we were probably going to go out there and have the best game we’d ever had, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. Looking back, it was a very funny incident, but at the time it was really annoying. I was running up and all the supporters were queuing up or walking down the road to get into the ground. It was about forty minutes before the start of the game and I was running up past them. At least the guy on the gate recognised me and let me in, although he had to look twice – that would have been the icing on the cake if they’d refused me admission after all that.

I don’t know if that was the reason we lost. We’d got down there very late after an intense game against Lancashire the four days before. That had finished at six o’clock, we got down there around one o’clock in the morning. That Lancashire game was one of the most intense first class games I’d ever played in – it was like a Test match. You needed probably two days to recover from that game, then after a six hour bus journey and no preparation on the morning of the game it was just too much. I think the boys were mentally knackered.

Someone else has suggested your worst moment would definitely be when Lancashire beat us in the semi-final when we had the game tied up, Lancs needing around 90 of 7 or 8 overs and then Hegg won the game for Lancs.

That was a low point. I wasn’t on top of my game anyway at the time and I just got it wrong, I couldn’t get it up in the block-hole and Warren Hegg got hold of me. It wasn’t just my fault, there were a lot of mistakes in that game, a few dropped catches, etc. Looking back it was a dreadful game for me. It was one of my lowest points definitely. The next day we had to turn out for a four-day game at Headingley and I nearly didn’t walk out of the dressing room. I was so close to saying that I’d had enough. It was pretty tough that, I took it pretty hard. That’s what I was like - I’d really beat myself up, whereas now if that happened I’d just say ‘sorry I didn’t get that right.’

What would you class as your proudest England moment?

Getting the Test match hundred was a massive highlight. It was like I realised that I could bat at Test level. I felt that I had achieved everything I’d set out to achieve. I’d got a Test match 5-for and a Test match hundred and that was awesome.

I’d always wanted to win a game for England and be there at the end of a game knocking some runs off. I’ll never forget the game at Kandy against Sri Lanka in 2001 where me and Ashley Giles were not out. Muralitharan was turning it square. I think I only got 21, but we saw it through and we won the Test match to level the series I think. That was a pretty big highlight as well and I’ll never forget that one.

Do you get fed up of people talking about you as an Australian even though you were born in Yorkshire?

Oh that really annoys me. When its in the press I’m always quick to remind them that I was born in Yorkshire. It wasn’t my fault that my parents took me away. I was a bit young at the time to dig my heels in and say I wanted to stay here.

Do you still think you did the right thing in giving up the Yorkshire captaincy at the end of last summer?

I’d sort of made my mind up during that game that if we stay up here – you know I had three years of it, got us promoted and then obviously the first job was not to get relegated and that happened – I just thought at the time it was the right thing to do. We were still in the 1^st Division, maybe I hadn’t been successful as a captain and it was time to have a look at someone else.

Would you do anything differently if you could have last season again?

I probably wouldn’t. We didn’t start off very well, we were very inconsistent and although individuals were doing well we didn’t gel as a team early on. I wouldn’t do anything different - it was one of those things. The frustrating thing about it was that we played well towards the end of the season but early on we just didn’t click. There weren’t three of four of us doing well at the same time it was just one or two.

I spoke to a guy you might know called Darren Lehmann yesterday and he has a question for you – do you regret introducing your sister to an Aussie?

(big laugh) At the time I thought ohhhhh what have I done, but no - you couldn’t wish for a better brother-in-law really. Everyone knows what he’s like. He’s just a top bloke and I am very proud to have him as my brother-in-law. I know it sounds corny but he’s a top man and he’s one of my best mates as well, not just a brother-in-law.

I told Darren I was interviewing you today and he told me to pass on his best wishes to you.

Okay thanks mate. Every couple of weeks we catch up. He normally rings me when he gets home in the early morning after a few beers, which is quite often (laughs again).

The winter has been a bit disappointing what with Chris Adams, David Byas and players leaving. What are your thoughts on all of that?

It’s probably better to wait until that’s all sorted until I can comment on that really. A lot of stuff’s gone on but I think now a lot of people are expecting us to get relegated this year. I personally think it’s probably not a bad thing, there’s not much pressure on the lads now because we’re rebuilding again and it wouldn’t surprise me if we have one of the best years we’ve ever had. There’s a kind of war-spirit where we’re all in it together now and you can’t control what’s gone on off the pitch, we’ve just got to get it right on the pitch. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we have a really good season this year and I’m not just saying that, I really feel it. I think Adam Gilchrist said that when you’re in a team situation it’s like a merry-go-round and as soon as you get off that merry-go-round someone else gets on and that’s what you’ve got to do and before you know it if you’re not on the ride someone else will come in. That’s what’s happened at Yorkshire – a lot of people have got off and it’s a chance for someone else to get on. You can’t worry about what’s gone on. We’ve got to perform and stay on that merry-go-round. It’s a chance for a few people to come in and grab their chance.

I’ve seen on the website that you’ve been working for a brewery during the winter.

I’ve been doing a bit of work with Caledonian Breweries as a brand ambassador, going around a few pubs and making sure that the beers fine and that they’ve got everything they need. On an evening they’ll book me in a hotel in areas like Hull and York where they’ve got a few pubs in the city centre. I go round and have a pint and a chat with the landlord and get a good relationship going that way. I’m only doing it two or three days a week.

I think you’ve made many guys jealous - a life spent playing cricket for Yorkshire and England and now moving into a job where you drink beer.

(laughs) It’s a nice thing to be doing at the moment.

Have you started back in the nets yet?

Not the nets, I don’t like doing too much network. I’ve started the fitness, going to the gym three or four times a week trying to get my legs strong. Six weeks in the nets before the season is plenty. I just want to keep my fitness levels up at this stage of the year.

Is there a chance we’ll see you bowling this year?

I don’t know, we’ll see. My knee is feeling really good at the moment touch wood. Its feeling loads better than it did at this time last year so that’s really encouraging. I’m really looking forward to this season and we’ll just see how the knee goes.

Even though this is the last year of my contract I want to play as long as I can. Fitness-wise everyone knows I’ve got this knee problem, but it does feel good at the moment. It’s a big year for me. I want to try and get 1100 or 1200 runs Yorkshire might sign me on for one more year maybe and that’s my goal. I love playing cricket and you’re a long time retired.

Did you enjoy moving up to open the innings last year or would you prefer to bat lower down?

I do like opening. It’s a catch22 as sometimes you’ll open and the new ball will nibble around a bit and you find yourself sat in the pavilion and after lunch it flattens down and you think ‘jeez I wish I was coming in now’ but that’s what you’ve got to take. I really do enjoy opening.

What are Yorkshire’s realistic targets this season?

I think we need to perform and compete as hard as we can and see where that takes us to halfway through the season and see where we are. I’ve said before I think we can surprise a few people this year.

When you do finish in the game is coaching something you’d consider yourself? Maybe a ‘Yorkshire brother-in-law dream team’ of Boof and Chalky?

Yeah it’s something I’ve thought about. I’ve got my Level 2 Coaching Certificate so I’ll see what happens with that. I’m sure if the Yorkshire job had come up in 1 or 2 years time Darren would have applied and done a great job.

Are you looking forward to welcoming Chris Adams to the crease in July?

(laughs) I’ve got no hard feelings towards Chris Adams. He realised it was a massive job and it was probably a fraction too early for him. It will be interesting to see how that match goes and to see how the Yorkshire public welcome him. I’ve got no hard feelings towards him at all.