On first impression, Stuart Broad’s father doesn’t seem overly blessed with paternal loyalty. We’re bouncing along in a 4x4 over a moonscape track in a field somewhere near Heathrow when he ruefully confides between gear-changes: “I wouldn’t be surprised if Stuart’s the first player to be fined his whole match fee on debut. He’s definitely going to be fined at some point.”

As if to confirm his wayward side, Stuart, who is driving the vehicle in front, chooses this moment to beach his VW Touareg on a precipitous hill, leaving one wheel spinning off the ground. He had already let slip earlier in the day that the last time he went off-roading he had ruined the steering, so maybe he is both too young to drive well and too young to bowl fast for England.

His father ought to know what he is talking about when it comes to discipline. Chris, the former England opening batsman, is now an ICC match referee and paid to decide what is, and what is not, acceptable behaviour for a cricketer. He also got into brushes with authority in his playing days, refusing to walk in a Test in Lahore and knocking over his stumps after losing his wicket in Sydney.

We may not have to wait long to discover the accuracy of Chris’s prediction. Stuart has been named in the England squad that leaves for Sri Lanka on Thursday, his first full Test tour, and he might well force his way into the side as a bowler who can shore up the batting at No 8.

Having completed our drives without further mishap, I sit down with father and son and ask them about the hereditary nature of aggression. Where did you get your feisty spark from, Stuart? Before he can answer, Chris chips in: “It must be his mother . . . ”

Chris, you can’t deny you were competitive? “I enjoyed my cricket and sometimes the passion spilled over. At the top level you’ve got to have passion.”

When you were growing up, Stuart, did your on-field behaviour ever get you into trouble? “No, I don’t tend to get verbal. It’s more of a stare. It’s my way of staying on the ball. The minute you start liking a batsman, you’re going to bowl him something he can hit. If you get hot-headed, he’s won.”

What about Sourav Ganguly at The Oval? “That was nothing. I had a little stare, we swapped a few words.”

So why is your dad so sure you’ll get fined? “He’d fine anyone, he would . . . ”

Chris: “He’s a passionate cricketer . . . ” Stuart interjects: “My appealing lets me down, doesn’t it?”

Chris: “ . . . and when I hear some of the things that go on, I think, ‘Christ, that’s a bit close to the mark’. Things have gone really well for him but there will be a downside, a loss of form or he doesn’t get the decisions he feels he should, and something might just change.”

Stuart: “I’ve only been in the match referee’s room once and that was for wearing the wrong-coloured undergarment. It’s ridiculous . . .”

Chris: “But you haven’t played a Test match yet and only 21 one-dayers. There’s plenty of time yet. It’s the appealing that lets you down . . . ”

Stuart: “It’s the excitement [when I think I’ve got a wicket]. I tend to run off towards the slips and forget to look behind [to check the umpire’s decision]. But I don’t want to draw attention to that, or they’ll be looking out for it.”

It becomes evident that father and son are genuinely close – close beyond merely sharing sentences. There is an affection that perhaps surprises even them. When Stuart was six, his parents separated and Chris left Nottinghamshire for Gloucestershire, but their relationship survived the upheaval. A love of cricket was probably a crucial bond. Now, with both travelling so much, they sometimes go months without seeing each other, which perhaps makes the shared times more precious.

Having himself played the game professionally, and perhaps cared too much, Chris understands the importance of Stuart retaining a sense of enjoyment and perspective. Not that this stops them being fiercely competitive with each other. Before the off-road driving, we went clay-pigeon shooting at the West London Shooting School and, throughout, the Broads kept a close eye on each other’s scores. They were simply desperate to beat each other. Despite having not shot before, Stuart emerged the narrow victor, though both achieved excellent scores.

I joke that Stuart probably had the edge because he imagined he had Yuvraj Singh – the Indian batsman who recently hit him for six sixes in an over – in his sight. Chris sniggers mischievously. Stuart doesn’t seem to hear.

“There was a stage when I thought I would win everything against Stuart,” Chris says, “but then all of a sudden he became stronger and I thought, ‘Hello’. We played against one another for the schoolmaster’s XI against the first team [at Oakham School] a couple of times. The first time he kept swinging the ball down the leg side and I kept whipping it off my hip; the second year, he’d put on extra pace and he got me out with a dubious lbw decision . . . ”

“It was absolutely plumb,” anticipates Stuart.

Chris adds: “He didn’t even appeal. In those 12 months, I knew he was developing and realised it wasn’t always going to be father who won.”

The turning point, they both agree, was a season that Stuart spent playing club cricket in Victoria. Stuart had joined Leicestershire in 2004 as a batsman who bowled but, after his winter Down Under, he returned the following year with an extra yard of pace and was swinging the ball better. He was also much tougher; the Australian environment had given him, in his own words, “extra fire and battle-readiness”.

Chris, who was in Australia on refereeing duties, immediately saw a change in his son’s character: “He was no longer a schoolboy, he was a young man,” he says. “I watched him play a couple of times and he was aggressive and giving it to them. It didn’t take them long to realise he was my son and give him stick for that, but he gave it back.”

Chris, naturally, cannot officiate on England matches but wherever he is in the world, he tries to keep an eye on Stuart’s progress. “I remember his greatest achievement at Twenty20 – sorry, his previous greatest achievement at Twenty20 (he laughs as he recalls Yuvraj) – when he won the Twenty20 Cup with Leicestershire. I was in Sri Lanka but still managed to pick it up on a local station. Sometimes I get to watch him when I don’t expect to. I used to get very nervous, but I’m better now.”

Stuart: “You’ve never been a pushy parent, really, have you?”

Chris: “I’m not someone who comes on the phone to him all the time, but in the calm atmosphere of home we will mull things over. We’ve never really had cross words.”

Stuart: “It’s more if I want to talk, I’ll call him. He’s there if I need him. We talk about cricket quite a bit, don’t we?”

Given that Nottingham is the city where he grew up, and is where his father lives again now, it is unsurprising that Stuart recently opted to leave Leicestershire for Nottinghamshire, though he insists there were good cricketing reasons for moving, such as the lure of first division cricket with a big club capable of winning big trophies. He has recently been looking for a new place to live in an area that is only a short walk from where his father lives.

Did you always hope he would turn out to be a cricketer, I ask Chris. “No, not really, although we did give him three initials because we thought it would look good on a scoresheet. He was lucky he went to a good school that gave him a good education and good sporting experiences. Oakham played a huge part. He was a rugby player, a hockey player and a cricketer during the summer.

It just so happened he turned out a cricketer – he was lucky he had Frank Hayes and David Steele as masters-in-charge – but he could easily have turned out a hockey goalkeeper. But I’m very pleased with the way it has turned out.”

Did they play games together in the garden? “That’s why I became a bowler,” says Stuart. “I couldn’t get the bat off him! Every time I got him out, he’d just chuck me the ball back. ‘Is it not my turn yet, dad?’ ‘I’m having a net,’ he’d say. But I also remember playing on the boundary’s edge at Trent Bridge with big dustbins for stumps. After play, he would be trudging

When Chris moved to Bristol, Stuart remembers travelling down at weekends and playing on the outfield there with Phil Bainbridge’s son. Chris insists he rarely sought to impart technique, preferring to leave that to the coaches. “My view was that if they were telling him things and then I started telling him things, he would just get confused, so I just left him to it,” he says.

But it is surely significant that it was Stuart’s batting that developed before his bowling, and that he picked up a bat left-handed like his father. Among the most impressive things about his fledgling international career have been some of his efforts with the bat, which include match-winning innings in Barbados (5 not out), Manchester (45 not out) and Dambulla (20 not out). He also recorded his maiden first-class fifty for England A against Pakistan.

Stuart’s elder sister, Gemma, also works for the England cricket team, as an assistant to Mark Garaway, the side’s video analyst. While he monitors the England team, Gemma, who captained the women’s team at Exeter University, logs data on opposition teams – so, in effect, brother and sister are both trying to unpick the techniques of the same opposing batsmen.

Having been a regular in England’s one-day side for the past six months, Broad Jr believes the time is now ripe for him to take his bow in the five-day game. “I feel ready as a bowler and a person,” he says. “I’ve got good experience of international cricket and feel at home at that level. I have no negative thoughts when I think about a Test match.

“Every training session over the next couple of weeks is getting me ready to play a Test and if the opportunity comes, I want to grab my chance with both hands. My ambition to be a genuine No 8 is real. England are searching for somebody to play that role after Ashley Giles. Someone’s got to fill that void. Why not me?”

Runs in the family: how good at cricket were the fathers of today’s England team

Michael Vaughan Father Graham played league cricket for Worsley CC in Lancashire; mother had links with the famous Tyldesley family

Alistair Cook Father Graham played village cricket

Ian Bell Father Terry did not play

Kevin Pietersen Father Jannie played squash and rugby but not cricket

Paul Collingwood Father David played for Shotley Bridge in Tyneside Senior League

Owais Shah Father Jamshed played for college in Karachi

Matt Prior Father Michael did not play

Stuart Broad Father Chris. left, played for Gloucestershire, Notts and England

Ryan Sidebottom Father Arnie, right, played for Yorkshire and one Test for England at the age of 31. He took one for 65 and was forced out with a foot injury. He also played professional football

Steve Harmison Father Jimmy did not play

Monty Panesar Father Paramjit played as an allrounder for Luton Tech. ‘Too much bottom hand,’ says Monty of his father’s batting

Matthew Hoggard Father John did not play. ‘My dad is a cricket badger,’ says Hoggard

Ravi Bopara Father Daldish did not play

Graeme Swann Father Ray played Minor Counties for Bedfordshire and Northumberland and for England Amateurs

James Anderson Father Michael played club cricket for Burnley off in his whites, and I’d be like, ‘Come on, we’ve got another half-hour yet’.”

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