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THIS book was conceived in the autumn of 1991, following a somewhat disappointing season of below par achievement, and with the problems of the 1990-91 tour of Australia still very much in mind. It was a time when the fortunes of my personal career were at a low ebb, and I was not at the peak of my form either in terms of performance or mental outlook.

There were several questions in my mind, which no doubt were also being asked elsewhere, largely along the lines of how I was going to approach the rest of my career, and whether or not I was going to be able to regain the sort of form that would allow me the chance to pass Geoff Boycott’s all-time England run scoring record, a target that had been there for the taking in Australia.

My subsequent omission from the Test side and ensuing poor form, with my perfectly logical further exclusion from that winter’s touring party, meant I had already begun to accept that number two in the list might be as far as I would ever get. This in itself was no problem as I could quite easily convince myself that what I had already achieved was not an overall disaster – and besides there are always other challenges in life.

However, a positive attitude was what I needed to begin the 1992 season in good shape, especially in view of the other potential problem lurking in the back of my mind. I knew that if this season did not bring success, I would be thinking very seriously about retiring from the game. My spirits were definitely at a low ebb!

Happily, I returned to Hampshire in April in the right frame of mind, and started the season in good enough form to realize those targets. My most important task was to try and convince people that my intention to play cricket for England for some years to come was entirely genuine. There were those, even in positions of power, who suspected that the Boycott record was my only motivation, a suspicion that I resented and strongly wished to dispel. Whenever a potential milestone has loomed on the horizon, I have always regarded it as incidental to the main course of events and taken the stance that if the job is done properly in the first place and often enough, then milestones will come and go automatically.

On the other hand, there is no point in denying that this particular milestone did mean a lot to me. When I did finally pass the magic figure it was a very proud moment. No matter what the future holds, I will be able to treasure that memory, even in the knowledge that someone eventually is likely to come and surpass the new total.

Ironically, as I write this preface for the paperback edition, many of those ‘What does the future hold?’ questions have resurfaced, despite what I would describe as a successful season in 1992. Every time that I have to sit down and compile something for this book, it seems that I have to do so at the same time as having to contemplate life from outside the inner circles of England cricket.

The basic truth that all of us in time come to appreciate fully is that there are no guarantees, hence the merits of being able to ease the inevitable disappointments by maintaining a sense of perspective and balance. Although I am to spend the winter of 1992-93 watching cricket for a living instead of playing it, I can do so comfortably, knowing firstly that I have much on which to look back proudly; secondly, that there is potentially much still to anticipate in terms of a cricketing future; and thirdly, to be spending half of the winter behind the microphone in Australia and India is not exactly a complete disaster.

Thus with cheerful countenance I proffer what follows as a mixture of fond memories and tales of woe, all of which are an integral part of any sportsman’s life, safe in the expectation that, as time goes on, inevitably the highlights will outlive the disappointments.

David Gower

Brisbane, November 1992