8 things Ravi Bopara told SPIN this month
From The SPIN Ashes special, in shops now. Subscribe here for £30 – and get a free Cricketers Who’s Who worth £18.99
I first picked up a bat when I was six. I started playing with my brother in the park and on street corners when I was eight. When I was 10 or 11, I first went to [Nasser's dad] Joe Hussain’s cricket school in Ilford, then started playing for Essex age-groups when I was 12. I fell in love with the game quite early. I loved waking up in the morning knowing I had a game that day, or coming back from school knowing I had practice that evening.
We were at a bit of a disadvantage, coming from an urban area. A lot of schools don’t have cricket. There’s not enough facilities, especially in London. There’s nowhere to go and play cricket. But then me and the teacher at school worked together to set up a team at my primary school. It sounds weird saying that – “me and the teacher”, ’cos I was only 10 or 11 then. But he did all the organising and I just tried to get guys involved and come along to the trials. But we organised the team and then we started to win things. We won the Lord’s Taverners Cup. Then
I set up a team at my secondary school, too – and we won things there, too.
I hit my first century when I was 12. Playing for Essex under-12s. A weird feeling. I got it with a six. We needed seven to win and I was on 94. So I knew it had to be a six and I just went for it. And it went for six.
My best innings was for Essex against Leicester last year. The double-hundred in the Friends Provident Trophy [201 off 138 balls]. Yes, I’ve had recent success in Test cricket but I still think that was my best innings. Everything just went perfectly that day.
I knew my first series would make me better. Sri Lanka 2007 was one of the hardest times of my career. [Ravi hit 42 in five innings and ended with three ducks in a row] It was tough. But I knew, when I got run out in that last game, that I was going to become better from that experience. Because it hurt me so much. And some people are put off by that kind of feeling but I was driven by it. Everyone makes mistakes. We’re human. You just have to learn from your mistakes.
I got a little too desperate to play for England.
Even before I hit the century for Essex against Australia in 2005, I was getting all that talk about being a future England player. And you can get a little bit desperate yourself and start to believe the hype. But the key is to enjoy yourself and be natural.That summer, when I was 20, I was thinking too much about wanting to play for England now. You start to dwell on negatives a lot. So, with experience, I think I’ve become a bit more… ignorant. I can blank things out.
I never watched a full day’s Test cricket. I watched a lot of cricket on TV when I was growing up – a lot of my hero Sachin Tendulkar. I used to watch a lot of one-day cricket live. And a lot of Test highlights.
I never watched a whole day’s Test cricket, though; just the highlights. What I liked about Test cricket was that beautiful shots that might go for one run in one-day games, would go for four in Tests. There was something nice about seeing that ball hop over that rope. Seeing the ball timed elegantly through the gap.
I don’t think too much about the bowlers.
I’ve hit centuries in my last three Tests. What’s changed since my debut series? I try to enjoy myself. I don’t think too much about the game or who the bowlers are or what might happen. I never think, ‘I should score runs today’. I just make sure I’ve prepared as well as I can. If I score runs I score runs and if I don’t… then it’s not my day.
Ravi was speaking at npower’s Urban Cricket facility in Wyck Gardens, Brixton. npower and the ECB have distributed over 60,000 Urban Cricket kits to children in the UK. npower.com/cricket
From The SPIN Ashes special, in shops now. Subscribe here for £30 – and get a free Cricketers Who’s Who worth £18.99
