To the man on the Metropolitan Line’s equivalent of the Clapham Omnibus, Mark Ramprakash was just another face in the carriage until 9.2 million people watched his first appearance on Strictly Come Dancing.

Familiar as he may have been to cricket followers as the veteran of 52 Tests, a wonderfully accomplished batsman whose Test average of 27 grossly undervalues his ability and craftsmanship, he could count on the fingers of one hand the times he had been asked for an autograph since he started travelling to the Brit Oval by Tube from his Hertfordshire home after moving from Middlesex to Surrey in 2001, the year he made the second of his Test hundreds.

Since smiling, hip-snaking and twinkle-toeing his way into a wider public consciousness, even as England’s Ashes campaign was foundering, he has scarcely been able to make a journey without being asked to sign a piece of paper or pose for a photograph. All this after a 2006 season during which he averaged 105, hit five scores of more than 150 in succession and swept smoothly past 2,000 runs in 20 county championship innings and into Wisden as one of the five Cricketers of the Year.

This season will be the first of three in a new contract with Surrey and such is the belated air of mental equilibrium that accompanies his unyielding search for technical perfection, it is unthinkable that he will not dominate in the first division as he did during the county’s brief rehabilitation in the second. They open their campaign at home to Yorkshire next Wednesday.

Ramprakash is 37 and the new contract will presumably see him through to retirement and probably to the 13 centuries he needs to become the first batsman since Graeme Hick — and only the 25th in all — to score a hundred first-class hundreds. His taste of television fame has done nothing to alter his focus on cricket.

“I’ve been thinking for the last five years about what I’m going to do after cricket and still nothing has really jumped out at me,” Ramprakash said.

“When you’re in a game from such an early age, that is all you really know. I have just passed my Level 4 coaching course, but I have time to decide what I want to do with it. I’m not sure what direction I will go in. I’ve talked to people . . . about whether I might want to present on television or guest as a pundit, but dancing was a one-off.”

Always an agile fielder, he denied, unconvincingly, that he was a natural dancer. “Karen Hardy’s [his partner] personality and skill as a coach was the reason for the success,” he said. “She was very enthusiastic and although I was self-conscious about it she put me at my ease, gave me confidence, made me relax and enjoy it.

“I can definitely take that into my cricket. I think I’ve learnt to play in a relaxed way anyway now, but that comes from certain things — if you’re comfortable in your environment, if you know that your name is going to be down on the teamsheet, for example.

“I’ve got a three-year contract, I feel very lucky to have been a professional cricketer for such a long time and I want to make the most of the last three years and enjoy them as much as I can.”

If only he had felt so secure and relaxed as a Test cricketer. “I didn’t get over the initial hurdle of getting at least a fifty when I first played against West Indies as a 21-year-old,” Ramprakash said.

“Without doubt I was picked too early. I look back and wonder what they were thinking of, picking a young player against the likes of Marshall, Ambrose and Walsh in a five-Test series.

Although I survived, I never really got going as a Test player and when I got back against a fine Pakistan bowling side I lost confidence.

“After that I always felt under the cosh walking out to the crease. For a period of time I broke through, but I batted at six and I couldn’t quite establish myself. You should always be in the frame of mind which says that if there’s a bad ball it has to be punished, but I just wasn’t able to play aggressively for England.

“That was the worst thing I could have done, but I was always concerned that I might get left out. My move to Surrey quickly changed that and I’ve just tried to be more philosophical and play my natural game since coming here. There’s a different dynamic at Surrey. They’re very progressive off the field but also on it.”

So serenely dominating was his batting last season that the selectors must have considered a recall. “It’s not going to happen,” Ramprakash said with a broad smile.

“I should have kicked on at least a couple of times to three figures in India [in 2002], but I didn’t really make the most of my opportunities. I don’t blame Duncan Fletcher [the England coach]. I always ask myself what I could have done better and I try to attribute things to myself. I know I left no stone unturned to do the best I can.”

Out of step

Few players bother to sledge Mark Ramprakash any more — “We just think it will make him more determined,” David Hemp, the Glamorgan captain, said. But the new Dancing King may have a different time this season (Matthew Pryor writes).

Some of the better suggestions are benign: “C’mon, Ol’ Twinkle toes” and “Show us your Rumba, Ramps”. The best were “Tango” and “Tango & Kash”.

There is perhaps one player capable of getting under Ramprakash’s skin: Shane Warne. The two will meet for the first time since the 2001 Ashes. “Keep going, Ramps, you know you want to,” were Warne’s words to Ramprakash during the third Test at Trent Bridge. Ramps charged, was stumped and spent the summer vilified.

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