All he really tries to do is keep it simple, hit the seam so that it will go one way or the other. He doesn’t really try to take wickets, just bowl maidens so that the batsmen eventually get themselves out. That’s what he told me, anyway.”Tremlett is naturally slightly defensive about his pace, possibly because some judges, including former bowlers, suggest he needs more of it – as well as belligerence – to make the breakthrough. He may have a point, because although express pace has its obvious appeal there is a level below that where other ingredients come into play. If Tremlett tries to bowl too quickly he also bowls too short.

As for aggression, he is a naturally relaxed man, though he has sought the advice of sports psychologists to check if he can become a little more pumped up once he crosses the white line.The injuries to a body that has continued to develop were probably to be expected. If they undoubtedly halted his progress and cast some doubts on his future, this may perversely eventually prove to have been beneficial. Since his dramatic debut in 2000, he has played only 44 first-class matches and thus has not suffered from too much bowling.He was 15 when he became serious about his bowling, and he grew in height quickly. He was picked for Hampshire against New Zealand A in 2000, and his first ball bounced more than the batsman, Mark Richardson, expected.

The man at short leg took the catch, and a bowling method was confirmed. (His grandfather, Maurice, who died when Chris was two, rather burst on to the scene as well by taking 5 for 39 in his first match.)Subsequently, Chris created a good impression at the National Academy and has started to use his time in the gym more effectively by working on the bodily parts which bowlers use. He began last summer hoping to nudge the selectors into picking him in a one-day squad, made the initial 30 for the Champions Trophy but was then injured. His goal is similar for 2005.A potential disadvantage is having the Rose Bowl as his home ground, a point both Tremlett and Graveney recognised. It may have something going for it as the newest venue in English cricket, but it is perceived as a bowler’s demi-paradise “For me, it’s not really a good thing,” Tremlett said.

“I don’t think England selectors will look at me if I am bowling all the time on wickets that are doing a bit.” Which is why the six wickets at Hove were definitely worthy of attention.These are early days in 2005, but they have brought nearer the next Tremlett of England.. Amid the sound of back-slapping and general applause that greeted the latest grand plan to make English cricket great, it was just possible to hear goalposts being shifted. Perhaps it was discernible only to the trained or cynical ear, but if you listened it was unmistakable. That express aim was contained in a document entitled A Cricketing Future For All, The National Strategy For Cricket. By last Tuesday, the mission statement had become a target and the year had moved to 2009. This time, it covered men’s, women’s and disabled teams, and was enshrined in a dossier with an eerily familiar theme, Building Partnerships, Cricket’s Strategic Plan. A degree of scepticism was possibly forgivable, if not wholly justified, especially as the ambition has been sneakily amended to making England first or second.In 2001, six years seemed a long way off, so it seemed safe to say it But time is running out In all but an arithmetical sense, it has already run out.

Only if England thump Australia twice and Australia lose to everybody else, probably including all the Balkan cricket-playing states, could England become the best team in the world by 2007. Of course, if they beat Australia twice by whatever margin it will not matter a jot what the tables declare.So, 2009 it is. The England and Wales Cricket Board feel slightly hard done by that some should think they are simply moving the year to suit need. The implied suggestion is that in 2007, say, if English cricketing events have not gone as smoothly as they might have done, a paper might be issued called, for instance, Raising The Standard, An ECB Blueprint For The Future Playing Structure Of Cricket.