What was the best moment of your career?

That is a difficult one because most people presume it was the Ashes Tests in 1981 at Headingley and Edgbaston. Those were high points but there have been many. To be the only England cricketer to play in both centenary Tests was a high. The one in Australia was out of this world to play in, and to be able to play the reverse fixture in England was something special. At Headingley in 1981, it got to the stage when we were following on. Graham Dilley and I were sat together before Graham went in to bat and we were wondering how we were going to get out of this. We decided that if it was off the stumps we were going to belt it and see what happened. Of course, that got Ian Botham going and the rest is history . . . The hardest part of the innings for me was actually keeping Ian in. Once we had got the field spread, it was just getting him to pick out the right balls to hit. Because they hadn’t got the close catchers, there was plenty of room to play normal cricket again and it would have been pointless to have regained our position and then thrown our wicket away by trying to smash one that wasn’t there.

Mike Brearley asked me if I thought we had enough. I said, ‘Well, we could do with another 50 runs and then we would be in with a very good chance of winning’. Obviously I am not a very good judge of situations. When I was batting with Ian and things were going well, the Australian field started spreading. Kim Hughes was moving fielders around and suddenly you got two or three other people starting to move fielders as well. Once that happened, you thought, ‘Yeah, the panic is setting in here’. We wanted that day to keep on going so that we could keep the momentum and not give them a chance to regroup. When they batted again they looked as if they were going to get away with it but Bob Willis came on from an end he didn’t normally bowl from at Headingley and we won.

What was the best thing about being a cricketer in your era?

It was a very social game. You played hard on the field but after a day’s play both teams would meet in a bar, have a couple of drinks and then go their own way.

What was the worst thing about cricket in your era?

After I finished playing, I had no training to do anything else. I finished in the mid-1980s and it has been a struggle ever since to make ends meet and get into reasonably steady positions.

Who was the best captain you played under?

Without a doubt Mike Brearley. He used his training in psychology on the people he played with and against. He knew when to put an arm around players and when to kick them up the backside. He knew the right buttons to press.

What is the worst thing about the game today?

The increase in the number of international matches and having them played at times when they are not suitable for the climates they are played in. To play a Test match at Lord’s at the beginning of May is far too early in the season. People haven’t got any real chance of getting into form.

What was the best country you toured as a player?

I loved going to India. I love Indian food. I found the people very friendly. The crowds supported their own teams but if you did well they were good at letting you know they appreciated what you were doing.

AND NOW?

My wife Letitia and I had a fish restaurant called Clipper at Praa Sands in Cornwall for 11 years. We sold it the week after Easter. I am 60 years of age now and from the half-term in May until the half-term in October we would work six or seven days a week, and on some of those days for 12 or 13 hours. It had gradually become less appealing. Cricket is a part of me and I want to get back into it again. I coach at schools in the Falmouth area in a national programme called Chance to Shine and am looking for opportunities to do more coaching. I have coached national age-group squads and it is my way of giving back to the game the pleasure I had over a 20-year career.

ON TV TODAY

Third Ashes Test, 1981, Fourth and fifth days

8.45pm ESPN Classic, Sky channel 442