No Boundaries (23 page)

‘OK, mate,' he said, ‘give us a clue.'

‘Cricket, Essex, England, talkSPORT, Alan Brazil's
Sports Breakfast
show…'

‘No, mate. Which bleedin' terminal?'

This wasn't an official talkSPORT trip. Alan had come up with the idea of spending a couple of nights in Vegas to take in what promised to be one of the fights of the year, plus a few bottles of bubbly and maybe chance our arms on the roulette wheel. We were paying our own way. ‘Don't worry,' he said, ‘my mate Ticket Ted from Teddington will take care of everything.'

I was looking forward to a fun weekend but some of the gloss was rubbed off when we arrived in Vegas to find our luggage hadn't joined the same connecting flight at Los Angeles as we had.

As we stood around the carousel waiting to see if the bags
would turn up, some of Ricky's Manchester City fans recognised me. I think it is fair to say they had been sampling the drinks trolley since taking off in England and they weren't pleased to see me. Their main complaint was that I was a Man U fan and had moved from Lancashire to Essex. Perhaps it was the alcohol but they certainly seemed to have trouble remembering my name. ‘Fucking Judas' was among the more polite alternatives they came up with. The abuse grew even louder and more extreme when they spotted Alan, who had had the temerity to play for Manchester United.

After a tiring day, a long flight, the crossing of several time zones, lost luggage and intimidating abuse from strangers, Alan said, ‘Fuck it, I'm not going to the fight. We'll only get a load more stick and maybe worse. By then they will be completely legless and probably throwing things.'

So we ended up playing the tables instead. I'm not a big gambler but I like a punt now and again and that night won around $1,500. We had an excellent meal, a glass or two of wine and a jolly evening. I finally watched Mayweather knock out Ricky on TV when I got home.

Getting home sounds simple enough but I realised it might not be so straightforward when I asked Al what time our flight left Vegas the next day. He said, ‘Dunno. Don't worry, Ted's taken care of it all,' and popped the cork off another bottle of champagne. I eventually made my way over to Ted, who said, ‘Nothing to do with me. You should have all your tickets and details.' I had nothing.

Alan was completely unconcerned and had decided he was enjoying himself so much that he was going to stay over another night anyway. But, while talkSPORT had learned to live with him occasionally going AWOL, I was a new boy and didn't want to blot my copybook this early in my career.
When I rang the airport to check, we had already missed our flight to LA and therefore our connection to London. I spent a couple of hours on the phone desperately trying to find a flight that would get me back in time to go to work and eventually managed to arrange a seat that got me in by the skin of my teeth at the cost of
£
850 on my credit-card bill.

Working alongside Al – and occasionally playing, although my stamina is not as good as his! – is never dull and has been so important to me. He knew what I was going through when I finished playing cricket and has shown me how to channel all my energies into new challenges rather than just wishing I was still out in the middle. He also geed me up when I faced criticism early on. I knew I was no Terry Wogan but I was working hard to improve and some of the comments hurt. Al just said, ‘Ignore them. You're doing fine. Some people just like to have a pop. They'll pick on someone else soon.' As usual, he was right.

I'm often asked if I will ever go back into cricket as a coach. With everything else I have on at the moment, it seems unlikely, certainly in the immediate future. But I did enjoy being captain of Essex and you can never say never. I like to be part of a team and if I was to take charge of a club I'd want to surround myself with good specialist coaches and medical staff. I was always struck that, while the England
set-up
had loads of PR people, officials and even IT staff, they only had one batting and one bowling coach. That seemed crazy to me. What's more important – running round after the press or making sure your players are in peak mental and physical condition? I also believed that too often the coaching staff behaved like school teachers handing down their wisdom from on high, rather than working with the players in a way that they can relate to. I doubt that any club would
make the investment in staff that I would want to do the job the way it should be done. But it's a shame because, with the talent we have in this country, we should never be trailing behind Australia, India and South Africa.

I had a fantastic time playing cricket, met some extraordinary people, travelled the world and will always look back on those days with huge satisfaction and happiness. Would I have liked to play more for England? Of course, but I have no complaints and my career at Essex more than made up for any disappointment on the international front.

I never believe people who say they have no regrets when they look back over their life. I am sorry that I'm no longer close to some of the great friends I had when I was young. I know a few of them think I deserted them when I became a pro but it really wasn't like that. It's all down to circumstances and choices that you have to make. If I was going to make it as a cricketer, I couldn't spend nights out on the lash. I had to be more focused and give up some of the things I'd enjoyed before and, in doing that, inevitably you grow apart from people. Moving to Essex changed things a lot as well. It wasn't just me who moved on: when I went back it was great catching up on old times with mates, but we didn't have any new times to share. It even happened within the game. John Crawley and I were like brothers at one stage but our careers went off in different directions and we drifted apart. It's very sad but I guess it's inevitable.

The other side of the coin is that some people don't want to stay in touch with you. I allowed myself a wry smile when my pal Dexter Fitton phoned me to tell me he'd received a letter from Lancashire County Cricket Club inviting him to a reunion. ‘You're on the list, Ronnie,' he said, ‘as one of the
people they've been unable to contact!' They couldn't have tried very hard.

I still see the lads at Essex. I'm on the cricket committee and follow their fortunes and I'm thrilled by the success Ravi Bopara is having with England, but clearly it's not the same as being in the dressing room every day. However, I believe passionately in the advice Frank Dick once gave me: ‘Achievement is a journey without an ending and the hardest part of planning is how to arrive at one destination and look forward to the next.'

My aim now is to put the same enthusiasm and energy into my life as a broadcaster and any other opportunities that come my way as I did in my cricket. Every single day I try to look forward, with no boundaries.