They say artists have to be dead before they receive the public recognition they deserve. Sportsmen usually have to retire before they attract the universal adulation denied them during their playing days. However, every once in a while, there is a character who manages to transcend local partiality to become something of a national icon.

Philip Clive Roderick Tufnell is one such player. The Middlesex slow left-armer has just reached a notable milestone in what might be termed a colourful career, in that he has just taken his 1,000th first-class wicket. Only 202 men had achieved that feat before in the entire history of the game. The significant wicket was, in his own words, "a bit of a grubber" but it did bowl the Australian contracted player Martin Love, Durham's overseas player.

The start of this long wicket-taking trail was back in 1986, but not until his third match. After wicket-less appearances against Worcestershire and Lancashire, he finally struck when Roland Butcher caught Surrey wicket-keeper Jack Richards at Uxbridge. It was much the same story in Test cricket. His debut came at Melbourne in the Second Test of the 1990/91 tour, during which he bowled 21 overs in the first innings and 24 in the second. The figures were respectable but the wickets column remained blank.

A few days later, however, he played in the Fourth Test in Sydney and in the Australian first innings, with the score on 512 for 8, Greg Matthews' knock of 128 came to an end with the help of a catch from Eddie Hemmings. The bowler was none other than P.C.R. Tufnell. In the second innings, he had figures of 37-18-61-5 and, as well as Terry Alderman, he claimed the scalps of David Boon, Allan Border, Dean Jones and Ian Healy. Not a bad bag.

That should have been the start of a long and distinguished Test career, but if a relationship with the authorities can be described as both chequered and colourful at the same time, Phil Tufnell's has been. You can understand the fact that he has not made as many appearances as he might have when you add his "attitude" to the type of player he is. He might be coming close to 2,000 first-class runs, and did once get a fifty to take his career average almost up to double figures, but there is not a decent team in the land where he would shorten the tail. His fielding does not really push back the boundaries of athleticism either. But as an English spin bowler he has few peers.

So, in the decade he played for England, he made 41 appearances. There were times when inferior bowlers would be chosen on the basis that they would score a few more runs or slide about in the outfield, and there were times when, quite simply, his face did not fit. Apart, that is, until England needed to win the last match of a series at The Oval. Then the call for The Cat would go out and he invariably came up with the goods.

It is this combination of being a match-winning bowler and something of a rebellious figure as far as the establishment is concerned that means he has found a way into the hearts of cricket fans across the country. As England's fortunes have dipped in this series against Australia, the call for his return to a Test side for which he last appeared in Cape Town on the 1999/00 tour, has become almost deafening.

Four years ago he came into the team at The Oval for the last Test against Australia. Match figures of 11 for 93 earned him the man of the match award and only served to add to the folklore of his exploits. He had done it earlier at The Oval, in 1991, taking 6 for 25 to bowl England to victory against the West Indies.

England have looked at every conceivable way of beating the Australians this summer – except one. He is bowling as well as ever this season – possibly better than ever – and has 55 wickets at just over 22 apiece. Perhaps, even without many runs or much sliding, the time has come to give Tufnell his turn.

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