He should have been remembered as one of the great England all-rounders and a cricketing role model for the black community. Sadly, long before he was arrested last December on suspicion of drug smuggling, Chris Lewis had a reputation for idiocy and wasting his talents.

He was dubbed "The Prat without a Hat" by The Sun in 1994 after he asked Devon Malcolm, his England team-mate, to shave his head at the start of a tour of the West Indies, then refused to protect his head and caught sunstroke. The response of Keith Fletcher, the England head coach at the time, was poetically blunt. "He's gone and had a cue-ball, the prat," he said.

The selectors had not been impressed either when he responded to being dropped after two poor Tests the previous summer by posing naked in a women's magazine. In 1996, he showed up 40 minutes late for a Test at The Oval, claiming that his car had suffered a flat tyre.

Yet, on the field, Lewis had the potential to be a fine cricketer. He was one of the most athletic sportsmen selected by England in the 1990s, a superb fielder, aggressive batsman and occasionally devastating fast bowler. Wicketkeepers said that balls bowled by Lewis hit their gloves harder than those from any other bowler.

He played 32 Tests between 1990 and 1996, scoring more than 1,100 runs and taking 93 wickets. Among his personal highlights, he took six for 111 against West Indies at Edgbaston in 1991 and made 117 against India in Madras two years later, although both matches ended in defeat. He played for England in the 1992 World Cup, taking four for 30 against Sri Lanka and three for 30 against West Indies, but he bowled poorly against Pakistan in the final and made a duck as England lost a match that they could have won.

In some ways he had the discipline needed to make it at the top level. He didn't drink, he read the Bible regularly and visited the gym every day. There was barely an ounce of spare flesh on him. But his critics felt that he did not try hard enough. Graham Gooch, his former England captain, said that he was never sure whether Lewis had the ambition to succeed. Perhaps, if he had chosen a sport where his mercurial temperament would have been understood and tolerated - if he had been a footballer or basketball player, say - he would have got the best out of his natural athleticism.

He was born in Guyana, where his father was a Baptist teacher. His parents separated when he was a child and he was brought up by his mother and a formidable grandmother. He learnt to play cricket on the streets and idolised Viv Richards. He came to England at the age of 10 and his cricketing talent was spotted at Willesden High School. At 17, he joined Leicestershire. He went on to play for Surrey and Nottinghamshire. In 1994, he averaged 59 with the bat for the latter county, coming fifth in the national averages, suggesting that he was more than a bowler who could bat a bit.

Last summer he made a surprise return to Surrey at the age of 40. He made 33 with the bat in a one-day game against Middlesex, but an injury then ended his comeback prematurely.