A season of Ramprakash

... when he does eventually retire, will he look back on a career unfulfilled? "I have to be very strong on that," he says. "The answer is that, given the cards I was dealt, I tried my best. I played my first Test at 21 against the West Indies, and I don't know what the selectors were hoping to get from me in a series in which even experienced players struggled, like Allan Lamb. These days, a lot of debutants come in and and do very well, because of that Team England thing. They feel like part of a team rather than a county player playing for England. Ravi Bopara played four Tests and seven one-dayers this summer without scoring a half-century. So it's a different era, but you know what, I'm very proud of the fact that I managed to hang in there for so long, and there was a period in Test cricket when it did go well for me. I topped the averages in Australia [in 1998-99] supposedly against one of the best teams in history. I don't know whether people remember those things, but they're important for me to remember."