Bell and whistles

Nobody sombrely explained that talent was just one of the requirements and not demonstrably more important than hard work, persistence and mental toughness. When Bell scored 150 runs in a one-day match for the Midlands at an England Under-14 festival held in Coventry, people told him it was unbelievable and unprecedented.

Why take the bloom from such an exotic fruit? Why point out that in life nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent?

When it comes to batting, I’ve been given a lot of talent, I’ve been lucky in that respect. The one area I needed to improve was the mental side He politely asks a security person if we can use an unoccupied corporate box at the stadium and, overlooking the pitch at Headingley, he sets off on the journey of his 29 years. Two words are used with uncommon frequency: “I think”. Over the course of an hour he will prefix what he says with 116 “I thinks” and each time it is a qualification, an expression that conveys both humility and uncertainty.

For example, we begin by talking about Alex McLeish’s move to the football club Bell supports, Aston Villa. He says: “I think McLeish is a good manager. I think the only problem is he’s coming from Birmingham but I think I can see a bit past that. If he gets the finances, I think he could have a great time at Aston Villa.”

This lack of assertiveness is relevant to Bell’s story, perhaps even central to it. Two years ago, a couple of months short of his 27th birthday, a career that hadn’t delivered nearly as much as it promised seemed destined to go the wrong way.

Peter Moores had just been sacked, Kevin Pietersen had just resigned the captaincy, and England were in Jamaica and all out for 51 in the first Test. Though not the worst, Bell was dismissed for two.

It was the defining moment in his career. Andy Flower had become the new head coach, Andrew Strauss the new captain and they dropped Bell. It wasn’t a tough call because Bell’s form had been poor and Flower believed that he [Bell] wasn’t sufficiently hard on himself. “I had no arguments with the decision,” says Bell.

“It was up to me how to react. I could have a bit of a jolly and not worry about it, ‘Sod it, I’m not going to play here but I will get back to Warwickshire and then start again’. Or, ‘I am going to train as hard as I can while here, get myself as fit as I’ve ever been, so by the time I get back to Warwickshire I will hit the ground running and be in the best form possible’.”

For six weeks on tour, Bell trained with England’s security officer Reg Dickason, an Australian with a passion for physical fitness.

“Reg said to me, ‘If you want to do something a bit different, we can do it. Let’s go on the beach at six in the morning, do a bit of boxing, a bit of circuit training’.

“So most mornings, we would get up before six, train on the beach, jump in the sea afterwards and though I didn’t like getting up so early, I was always glad that I did.

“When it comes to batting, I’ve been given a lot of talent, I’ve been lucky in that respect. But when you get to international cricket, there are 22 guys with a lot of talent and if there was one area where I needed to make improvement, it was the mental side. Physical training can affect that. If you put yourself in places where it hurts, that helps your mind. It makes you tougher.

“I remember towards the end of that trip, we actually did a team fitness session where I was looking around and thinking, ‘I’m feeling really strong here, I’m in a good place here’.

“Before we left the West Indies, Reggie signed a pair of boxing gloves for me, wrote something on them to the effect that ‘If you don’t quit, you don’t lose’. I’ve still got those gloves, there in my sports room at home, sitting in a cabinet and from time to time I look at them and recall the hard yards we did on that tour.”

Ian Bell takes a stroll on the beach with with his new bride Chantal Bastock (INS News)

He had always sought the respect of his peers in the England changing room, to such a degree that he felt pressurised and inhibited. He was the kid at Princethorpe College in Rugby, Warwickshire, called from a geography lesson on his first day in Sixth Form and told by the principal that he had been called up to play for Warwickshire and had to report immediately to Edgbaston.

He was 16 then and already on a professional contract with the county.

Everybody said he was a natural but it wasn’t how he felt. “Walking out for Warwickshire, I was confident,” he says. “Then if you saw me the next week walking out for England, you would say that I was two different players.

“At Test level, confidence was something I never had at an early age. I never really believed in my own ability.”

During England’s triumphant Ashes series in the summer of 2005, he wondered what Shane Warne had up his sleeve and quite forgot that he, Ian Bell, could play spin. And that’s how he was, talented but fragile.

It hurt like hell because back then, he felt he was nothing except a cricketer and when people talked about his failings, they analysed and found fault with his character.

In the end he was saved by his character and his fierce love for the game. When he was 14, his performances in the centre of midfield for a local boys’ team earned him a place at Coventry City’s School of Excellence. He knew he wasn’t good enough to make it in football and accepted the offer because he believed it would keep him in good trim for the cricket season.

His Test average is now 47.11, not quite world-class but close enough to climb to the ultimate level. In fewer than three weeks from now, England entertain the world’s number one side, India, in a Test series that will determine how the home side look back on 2011. Bell believes he and the team are ready.

“The England dressing room is now an amazing place, I think, great to be involved in,” he says. “We really enjoy each other’s success, which wasn’t as good in other England teams I’ve played in.”

And the batting line-up? “I think we’ve got a nice balance with Cookie, Straussy and Trotty, who set the platform for us, and with the likes of KP, myself, Morgan, it’s a nice balance for Test cricket. It’s an exciting time.”

For Bell, too, there is excitement. The summer has come for England’s Test team and it finds him, at last, in the summer of his own career.