Mumbai
Friday, November 16, 2001 If Warren Hegg was a pastry, he'd be a cup-cake: pocket-sized, sweet, inoffensive and effective, without being a taste sensation. Now cup-cakes don't always get the recognition they deserve, and for over a decade Hegg has been England's whoops-nearly man.

At 33 he has been a Lancashire sweetmeat behind the stumps since 1986, but his international career has been limited by the willingness of Alec Stewart to carry any burden that the selectors chose to heap on him. Hegg's chance seemed to have come and gone on the Ashes tour of 1998-99. He played at Melbourne and Sydney, after Stewart temporarily stumbled under his workload, but then fell victim to the clear-out that followed England's cock-up of a World Cup. The Hegg horizon looked limited to the Pennines.

First Chris Read, 10 years his younger, was picked for the home series against New Zealand, then Duncan Fletcher came in and handed the gloves straight back to Stewart. When anyone else got a go, it was in one-dayers only, and the chance went to Read or the even younger James Foster. But then Stewart decided to take his first recorded rest, and after two fine summers with the bat, averaging 36 and 49 in the Championship, Hegg heard the phone ring in August and found himself taking a call from David Graveney.

Not that he was expecting it. "I knew that I'd had a couple of very good years with Lancashire but it came as a really nice surprise and it's really nice to get another crack at the whip."

Hegg may have won his place largely for his batting, but his gift for diplomacy can only have helped. He survived a tricky end-of-season situation at Lancashire - the rancorous departure of Bobby Simpson and John Crawley - and has been appointed captain for 2002. And with the news that Crawley is threatening to sue Lancashire, this tour promises to be a doddle in comparison to what awaits him back in Manchester.

Hegg even manages to be nice about Sourav Ganguly, a sentiment that wasn't easy to find during Ganguly's stint as the overseas player at Old Trafford in 2000. "I'm looking forward to catching up with Sourav - all that press coverage about him at Lancashire was blown out of all context. He's a world-class cricketer but cultures aren't the same everywhere. Sourav is a quiet guy but a very, very nice guy, and funny. I've got no problems with Sourav Ganguly whatsoever. He bowled a lot more than I thought he would too - I think he needed to at times."

Unlike most of the England party, Hegg has some experience of playing in India. He took part in a one-day tournament to celebrate the centenary of cricket in Calcutta, which Lancashire won in front of a bursting Eden Gardens. His ears prick up with enthusiasm at the mention of it. "India is a wicketkeeper's greatest challenge and I've also had a great experience over the last few years in keeping wicket to Muttiah Muralitharan [at Lancashire]. That's been something you can't really behold and has taught me a lot about keeping to spinners."

Despite that, James Foster is probably the bookie's choice for the first Test, if only because he is the man in possession after the one-day series in Zimbabwe. But whoever gets the pleasure of a close examination of Sachin Tendulkar's footwork, Hegg is under no illusions that Stewart's boots will be hard to fill. "He's been the cornerstone of the England cricket team for a long, long time but at the same time there is an opportunity there for someone to step into his shoes."

Tanya Aldred is assistant editor of Wisden.com and our reporter on England's tour of India.

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