England Cricket / Ralph Ellis / 26 February 2009 /

As Matt Prior and now Tim Ambrose share wicket-keeping duties out in the West Indies, betting.betfair.com caught up with another in the form of Paul Nixon to talk declarations, Andrew Flintoff and doing your bit for charity.

Paul Nixon might have been in the West Indies keeping wicket - instead Betfair met him helping launch this summer's Special Olympics in Leicester. We wondered how he felt about that

Hi Paul - so what's it like having to watch England from the other side of the world. It must be strange.

Yeah of course it is. There's no point pretending anything but that you want to be there and put yourself in it. I was lucky enough to nearly do so, but I had a disappointing Australia series with the bat, although I still think I kept wicket well. In the World Cup I averaged 45 so I went into the England team on a high and came out feeling higher and obviously I would still love to be part of that. It was a great joy and honour to play for England, and during a series like this you put yourself in the lads' situation on a daily basis. I'm always sending text messages back and forth to them and vice versa.

So what have you felt about how Matt Prior has done?

Well he's a high quality batsman, and I thought he played very unselfishly in the last Test especially in the second innings. He could have played for himself and got a much bigger score, and made sure Matt Prior looked right, but he played for the cause of the team and that tells me he's a lot more secure in his role. Keeping was very difficult at times in Antigua because there were many balls flying along the ground. It's a keeper's worst nightmare because balls at 90 mph bounce and shoot along the ground, and that meant an unfortunate number of byes. But at the end of the day it's about chances and he took most of those that came his way.

He's come back home again before this game after becoming a dad - what's your view on that?

No issue for me. I think it is important that life issues come first, family always comes first in my view, and we certainly have that policy at Leicestershire and no doubt Andy Flower as England manager wanted Matt to be back to see his new baby. That's first and foremost in his mind which is only right. Cricket should be second in that situation. We've got Tim Ambrose out there, and Andy Flower will know them both well. Then there's Andrew Strauss who has done a bit of keeping before and is not the worst with the gloves.

What have you felt about the series so far?

I think we've played some good cricket in parts, and it was gut wrenching not to win the last Test after being in such a dominant position. Most of all I've been really pleased for Andrew Strauss in the way he has handled himself and the way he's come out and played so positively. There was disappointment in not winning the Antigua Test from such a strong position, but we are still in a reasonable position

Did you think the declaration should have come sooner?

Yeah, there were one or two issues perhaps. Sending a night watchman in for me was a slightly negative decision, but that's down to the next batsman in that situation. I felt at the time we didn't need a night watchman, it was about going out and playing positively because the light was always going to go at the end of the day. It was a big decision, obviously.

It seems to us that pundits and fans always look for positive declarations while people who play the game always err on the side of caution.

I think you're absolutely right, but remember declarations can win and lose games and a decision that is made very lightly can cost you a Test match. I'm sure they thought long and hard about it - if Chanderpaul or Sarwan had got in and stayed there for a long time - which is what they did - anything less than the target that was set and all of a sudden someone else comes in and plays a quick cameo of 50 not out and a game can be turned on its head.

Big scores can be knocked off - especially there. It's an amazing pitch, you've seen how many records have been broken over the years there, so they would have had one eye on the worst case scenario first. That's only human, to dominate with such conviction and then throw away on a bad declaration wouldn't have been worth it.

Was losing the Test in India on their minds?

Absolutely, they are gut wrenching days when you play such good cricket and you've all been ahead of it for so long and then somebody gets in and changes the game. At the time Freddie was struggling. Andrew Strauss and all the past captains would always go to Freddie as a world class bowler to knock the tail off and win the game, and he would have known how injured Freddie was and wouldn't want to harm him. He did go back to him but he would have liked to have been able to do it earlier but he couldn't.

How much will Freddie be missed in this match?

Hugely, Freddie is a world class bowler. He chips in with his batting but with the ball he is as good as anybody in the world, both to right handers and left and that's unusual. People generally bowl well to one or the other, but his natural shape can go away from the left hander off the pitch ,and swing away from right hander too, and he uses both normal swing and reverse swing. It will be interesting now because there will be a lot more pressure on the batsmen to score big runs to give the bowlers time to bowl them out twice

How's things for yourself - are you going back to Delhi with the ICL?

Yes and I'm looking forward to it, although it won't be until the end of the year now. The next one was postponed because they are trying to make the international tournament bigger. 'm looking forward to going back. I signed a three year deal - thank goodness before the ECB made the hard stance against the ICL! Meantime I'm working hard on Leiceser's pre-season.

We are all back in a few weeks so looking forward to it and seeing us bring good quality youngsters through. We're going to be playing six home grown youngsters under the age of 26 this year, which is a great achievement and we will have only three non England qualified players, so we're trying to push hard and focus on English cricketers coming through which is a good thing.

Do you enjoy helping them?

Absolutely. I remember when I was a kid with the likes of Peter Willey and John Agnew, it was a very different environment in those days. We didn't get a lot from those guys, so I enjoy giving back to the youngsters. It was a very selfish sort of game in that era, but now it is very much more team oriented We've got some quality youngsters - Josh Cobbs is going to be an outstanding bat, and fast bowler Alex Wyatt is only 18 but I think could be as good, if not better, than Stuart Broad.

Meanwhile you're doing a lot to support the Special Olympics. Is that because you are dyslexic?

Partly. I suffered quite a bit over the years. I've no doubt if the condition had been understood better I could have done a lot more. It's also because Leicester has been my home for 20 years so I'd support any sporting event in the City. There's no better cause than this to give people an amazing opportunity to enjoy the sort of competitive sport and training sessions that we take for granted.

We met David James a few weeks ago and he said the event is the poor relation of the Olympic family.

Sadly he's right, but we are trying to change that before it comes to Leicester this summer. And it's going well - we have some fantastic events and venues, we'll make sure it's a great party. We've already got almost 3,000 volunteers but we need a few more, so please come on board and make a few dreams come true.

No prizes for guessing where your free £50 charity bet will go then!

Absolutely, it can go to the Special Olympics Leicester project - and I'll back Leicester City to take charge of the League One promotion race by winning at MK Dons this weekend at [2.88]

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