After all we’ll only be doing what every other team has done for the last 25 years.”Life and timesBorn: Failsworth, Manchester 23 March 1968.Playing career: Captain England Under-19s Captain Cambridge University, Blues 1987-89 County debut for Lancashire 1987 Test debut 1989. England captain 1993.Milestones: In 1987, became youngest player to score 1,000 first-class runs in debut season since Paul Parker in 1976. Youngest Lancastrian to score Test century v New Zealand at Trent Bridge in 1990, aged 22. Only second Lancastrian to score century in Test at Old Trafford v India in 1990. Elsewhere, captains just seem to be judged on what they do on the field.

I never had a problem with the amount of coverage after the soil-in-pocket affair, just with certain interpretations of it.”The all-consuming nature of the job has been the making of him as a batsman, and he is the foundation upon which so many England totals rely. Over here we tend to get on our high horse a bit more, as the role of England captain seems to be viewed in a more rounded sense, almost as an establishment figure and therefore someone who should be setting a broader example. It was an intrusion he sought legal advice over.”I’ve put the South African business behind me, although I expect snide comments will keep resurfacing. Firstly, the soil-in-the-pocket controversy against South Africa at Lord’s last year, which resulted in a hysterical witch-hunt, and secondly the recent publishing of photographs of his naked posterior in a daily tabloid, taken when in the supposedly safe haven of his favourite dressing-room at Old Trafford.

It is a combination that confuses people who don’t know him and he rarely makes an immediate impression on those he can’t relax with and he admits to having a terse relationship with the tabloid press.Two incidents have helped nurture a new cynical streak, in his normally forgiving and easy-going nature. So just by virtue of experience, I believe I’m improving.”At the age of 27, Atherton is nearing the peak of his powers as a player and, form and a chronic back injury allowing, has another six or seven years of Test cricket in him. Despite the pips on his shoulder, he is not a natural leader. In truth, he is much happier in the role of team man, although earlier in his career, a hierarchical Lancashire dressing- room thought the then Cambridge undergraduate a touch ambitious and his studious occupation of the crease was seen by some as scheming and selfish.He even had the letters FEC daubed on his cricket “coffin” in boot whitener, and though one popular interpretation of this was that it stood for Future England Captain, the normally prescience-free zone of county dressing- rooms meant it was far more likely to be a less complimentary phrase, with two expletives surrounding the word Educated.Popularity has never been a preoccupation with Atherton; he has never sought to please people by being anybody other than himself, an ordinary Mancunian lad with a sharp, enquiring mind and a penchant for ale and sporting gossip. But, more disconcertingly, I allowed it to show to the rest of the team. It can be difficult at times, but like anything, the more you do it, the more you come across situations you’ve seen before, the quicker you react to make something, or even prevent something, from happening.