Jack Russell Photo CricInfo

You might not guess it just from meeting him, but it was as far back as 1981 that Gloucestershire's longest-serving player made his debut for the county. "It's flown by, so there must have been some fun along the way," he enthuses. The fun included five one-day trophies in 1999 and 2000, and a mere matter of 54 Test matches, in which he rattled up a shade under 1,900 runs and 165 victims behind the stumps.

At 38 ("28 in my head"), Jack Russell is raring to go again, with the specific objective of helping Gloucestershire win promotion in both forms of league cricket in 2002. "I can still remember my first day with Gloucester, against Sri Lanka at Bristol. I was very nervous, still at school. The first ball I ever kept wicket to in first-class cricket went for four byes. It didn't discourage me – I thought I can only go up from here!"

In those days, Zaheer Abbas and Sadiq Mohammed were amongst Russell's heroes in the Gloucestershire side, and seven years later he followed them into the international arena. But as the England selectors repeatedly adapted the side in search of balance, Russell was never sure of his place. In 1998, ten years after his Test debut, he decided to retire, and he has devoted himself to the Gloucestershire cause ever since.

"It means I can have a rest in the winter, get fit again, and hit the following season very hard, right the way through," he explained. "I look back now and wonder how, over the years, I managed to play 12 months of the year.

"I hoped that we could win a trophy or two, and we've managed to do that. But the legacy we want to leave is that of a successful team over a long period of time. It's going to be a big challenge for us to keep the thing going, because we've set such high standards, we're going to have to work very hard to push them even further."

Russell - keen to carry on Photo CricInfo

Russell has signed a new two-year contract, and his duties will include coaching the county's newly-signed young keeper, Stephen Pope. Any thoughts of retirement are premature. "There's still some ambition in the bones at the moment, still fire in the belly. But hopefully Mr. Pope can eventually take over and leave me to my paintbrush!"

Didn't Bob Taylor, one of Russell's distinguished England predecessors, play on well into his forties? "Bob played till 44, 45 I think, and there's no reason why I shouldn't if the ambition is still there. As you get towards the end of your career you try and make the most of things, so I'm loving every minute – I really am. I'm enjoying the challenge of it."

And what when it's finally time to hang up the floppy hat? "Our keepers in this country need coaching, good coaching, sensible coaching. I'm still amazed – and annoyed – that the England set-up don't appear to have a wicket-keeping coach. I was really lucky during my England career to have Alan Knott with me. Knotty was there 24 hours a day, and I still speak to him now, even though he's emigrated to Cyprus. It would be nice to put something back into the game, certainly on the wicket-keeping front, and I'd love to be involved with Gloucestershire."

During last summer's Ashes series, Russell couldn't resist offering to come out of retirement to help England out. Does the offer still stand? "If the Chairman of Selectors tapped on my shoulder and said: `We're playing Australia, we've got a bit of a problem, can you help out?' the chances are that I would."

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