Bopara, the boy who battled

Ravi Bopara: 'a very bubbly, infectious character' © Getty Images

"You don't have to be Garry Sobers to play Test cricket," Rod Marsh once said, "... mind you, it doesn't hurt."

We were chatting at the academy in Adelaide a few years ago, not long after Marsh had been handed what many considered the impossible task of helping transform England from a nondescript collection of easy-beats into cricket's No.1 team by 2007. Well, what do you know? Here we are at the appointed moment of destiny - and, while still a work in progress, England have come a long way.

Alongside Duncan Fletcher, with whom he did not always agree (to put it mildly), Marsh brought a sense of purpose to his adopted country's cricket that, to everyone's mystification and frustration, had been elusive for so long. The two of them, in their different ways, have been inspirational. As outsiders they lent distance and objectivity. As tough professionals they were the ultimate pragmatists. Neither was distracted by emotion or the ravings of the often hysterical British media.

Marsh was not talking about anyone in particular, as I remember, when he brought Sobers into the discussion. Adam Hollioake's name might have come up, certainly as a one-day player and captain. No doubt that of Nasser Hussain did too.

Marsh's point was that application, hard work, commitment - all the boring stuff - could turn a decent first-class player into a more valuable and more permanent member of an international side than someone with a greater array of strokes or more potential as a bowler who, for a variety of reasons, could not live up to expectations.

Marsh had seen it first-hand. He played in an era when Rick McCosker, for instance, made the most of his talent while the more gifted Paul Sheahan did not. He saw Gary Gilmour promise a lot and deliver less. Indeed, Marsh himself did not start so promisingly. Remember the 'Iron Gloves' jibes? He had to work at his keeping and, by the time he matured into a confident and dangerous batsman, he was near enough the complete Test cricketer.

And for all those reasons I think he would be pretty pleased with two players in the current England squad: Paul Collingwood and Ravinder Bopara. Collingwood, of course, we are familiar with. He has proved repeatedly, through sheer grit, that he is worth his place.

I am intrigued by Bopara. The day before England flew out of London to the Caribbean I asked one of the assembled cricket correspondents at the team's Gatwick hotel what he knew about the young man from Essex. "Rav the Chav," he said. "He's got bags of attitude." It was not an insult.

He bats with combativeness around No.6, bowls skiddy cutters and fields loudly. He is impossible to ignore

What the writer might not have known about Bopara is how he had to fight his way into the game, nagged people to give him a chance, how he ignored his unpromising background - and became an England player.

For that story I spoke to a couple of Yorkshiremen - the sort of cricket enthusiasts without whom the game would be much poorer and who toil far away from the lights and glamour.

William Greaves and Haydn Turner run Capital Kids Cricket, a scheme to help boys and girls in some of London's tougher neighbourhoods try out a game with which they would otherwise have no contact. Bopara, growing up in Forest Gate and possibly not a total angel, sought them out as a teenager. He wanted a break. He got on their scheme, loved the game and flourished. Essex gave him a contract at 17 and have just renewed it. He is not a stylist with the bat and does not bowl at 100mph. But he gives it everything because he is hungry.

William and Haydn do not want to boast about it but Rav is their star graduate. Who knows how many others they can find? I went to one of their open days at Lord's and was impressed, not just by the skills but by the enthusiasm. There was a huge amount of shouting, a lot of laughing, bats that thrashed, balls that whizzed, knees and elbows scraped.

"I make no bones about it," Greaves said, "my objective is to keep these kids out of jail. If we produce a Test cricketer or two, that's a bonus. A lot of them come from pretty cheerless, big estates. All around them are potential pitfalls, so if we can give them a real incentive to get out of that and take up something like this, we feel as if we're giving them a chance. I always say to my wife, if our car windows have just been smashed in, 'I bet it's none of our kids.'"

The only windows Bopara is likely to be breaking are those in dressing rooms, preferably from the outside in, with a six or two.

Graham Gooch says he is "a very bubbly, infectious character". Another Essex man, Hussain, with whom Bopara shares a spirit of defiance, sees his cockiness as a plus. Rav has already got a reputation as a feisty type unafraid to say his piece in exalted company.

Bopara has already done for the England dressing room what his recently departed Essex team-mate Darren Gough did a few years ago: make them laugh.

He bats with combativeness around No.6, bowls skiddy cutters and fields loudly. He is impossible to ignore. Rav is no Sobers but he will do. And England could do with a few more like him.