In this second part of our exclusive interview, we talk to Paul Downton the cricketer – both domestic and international – about winning trophies and facing – and surviving – against arguably the fastest pace quartet in history…

Downton started his playing days at Canterbury as understudy to one of the Kent greats – Alan Knott. “He was brilliant, he was my hero,” Downton admitted.

“When I was growing up anyway, and therefore to suddenly pre-season and doing drills with him! He was always a kind guy, a really smart thinker of the game, who always had a theory and always very welcoming – a true legend of the game who was my hero growing up – it was a real treat!”

“In time the committee had to make a decision as to whether wanted to keep me in the side at the time of Kerry Packer and Knotty taking a “sabbatical”, but in the end I had to move on for my own sake and develop my own career!”

“I was very lucky in my career in the end. I won the Championship here, the Benson & Hedges Cup here as a young guy and went to Middlesex just as Kent were coming off a huge crescendo in the sixties and seventies, I joined a Middlesex side packed full of internationals and I can look back on a CV of having been part of six Championship winning sides, eleven one day cup winning sides, and of course thirty Tests for England and in all fifty eight games for England.”

“I can look back now on a satisfying career that included two Ashes winning series! Lots of good memories.”

“The Ashes were different experiences entirely. In 1981 where we ended up winning when Mike Brearley came back, we had three wicket keepers that series – I was the first. In 1985 in Australia, I played all six Test matches and I think we won 3-1 which was great.”

“It might not have been quite the pinnacle it is now from a media point of view as at the time the West Indies were by far and away the best side in the World.”

“I played a lot of games against them and rarely came out on even the drawing side against them – it was really tough work, but it was great experience to say that you’ve played a lot of games against one of the best teams in history!”

That pace battery of Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Andy Roberts and Michael Holding remains one of the fiercest ever to ever play the game of cricket and Downton admitted, “You get conditioned a bit to facing it, so you know you’re facing fast bowling most of the time.”

“From my point of view I had a technique that allowed me to survive – didn’t allow me to smash it around the park – so certainly in 1984 I did bat for a long time in minutes, second only to Alan Lamb I believe!”

“You got used to it is what it comes down to… we played on wickets that were fair; we went to the West Indies and the wickets were a bit “spicy” which was a completely different kettle of fish, but it was a privilege to play in those games against a great, great side!”

Moving to the present, we finished by asking Downton for his views on “Baz-ball”.

“I know that he (Brendan McCullum) has the term!” Downton laughed, “It’s fascinating to see what England have achieved – it’s remarkable! I think (Ben) Stokes in particular has to great take credit with the way he’s led the side – he’s been positive and innovative.”

“Brendan McCullum and Rob Key have been part of creating that too. Some say that Test Cricket is boring – it’s certainly not watching this England side play, and it’s allowed really high quality players to play with a freedom to show off their talents.”

“Do I think it will feed into County Cricket? Inevitably it will have an impact. If you look at the simple messages from the England team is that you go out to win every game rather than the old-fashioned English way of making the game safe before you try and win it – that’s gone out of the window!”

“It’s how you take twenty wickets so looking to be positive with the ball and when you get opportunities to the bat you exert pressure, but you have to absorb it sometimes too.”

“It’s a very simple message which has freed up the players immensely and they really seem to be enjoy playing in that environment!”