Heâs a bit of a twat though.
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A bit?
A lot
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Some right twats posting in their pictures and comments onto the BBC sport Test March text updates as well
Bunch of oddballs and misfits with an over inflated opinion of their importance. Would fit in well here come to think of it.
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Its grand to be hammering these hapless Australians but is it really the kind of preparation we needed ahead of the upcoming winter tour to South Africa to face the world Number 1 side in a four test series?
England will at least have had the benefit of the excellently contested series against New Zealand earlier in the summer in terms of preparation.
Chris Lewis, the former England allrounder, has been released from prison after serving six years for drug smuggling.
Lewis, 47, was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment in May 2009 for smuggling liquid cocaine valued at more than ÂŁ140,000 into Britain hidden in fruit juice tins in his cricket bag. He was stopped at Gatwick airport after a flight from St Lucia the previous December.
A former basketball player, Chad Kirnon, was also found guilty.
âOn a physical level jail has not been hard,â Lewis said after his release from High Down Prison in Surrey. âItâs a hard mental exercise to stop yourself from thinking negatively. For 24 hours a day youâre a prisoner. Itâs nice to be back - and I donât mean being outside - I mean back being me.â
Far from excluding Lewis from its midst, English cricket - in the guise of the Professional Cricketers Association - plans to work with him to educate young players. Lewis will speak to first year county professionals at next yearâs PCA Rookie Camp and also join the PCA team on the Associationâs programme of pre-season county visits.
This is the latest example of the PCAâs willingness to rehabilitate former cricketers who have committed a crime by involving them in education processes. Mervyn Westfield, who was found guilty of spot fixing, has also addressed young professionals about the dangers.
Lewis, born in Guyana, retired from county cricket in 2000 after playing 32 Tests and 53 ODIs. Widely regarded as a talented maverick. He last played first-class cricket the summer before his arrest when he attempted a Twenty20 comeback with Surrey.
He worked for Nottingham City Council and was also involved with coaching in Slough when he retired in 2000 but admitted he became afraid of what the future held and he ended up making poor decisions that led to him being jailed.
You are playing cricket, perhaps even hoping to get back into the England team, and within the space of a few months itâs actually all over," he said. "There wasnât a great deal of information around then for young players about what they should be doing or trying to do.
"Yes, you heard the stories about having to plan for your future because cricket doesnât last forever but what does that mean?
"At the time I thought that planning was taking out a pension or taking out a life insurance which are things that I actually did. Standing here now you know planning is a lot more and it takes a lot more time and effort.
"You try different things to try to generate cash. You are not talking about the same level of cash as when you played. You are talking about a level of cash that, now you are living a normal life - to sort that out. Coming back to play T20 for Surrey, that didnât work and at the same time the old hips played up.
"I had spent a bit of money. I had been away to Australia to train to try to get fit to come back to do the Twenty20 so money had been spent and nothing had been earned. I became afraid of what the future held and at that point the thinking actually went awry.
âI made choices that I shouldnât have made and that were the wrong choices and that, in the end. I should say sorry for because they were the wrong choices, and I do say sorry for.â
Jason Ratcliffe, assistant chief executive of the PCA, has remained in contact with Lewis throughout his time in prison and hopes that Lewisâs willingness to speak about his experiences will help current county players.
âWhilst we canât ever condone the trouble Chris got himself into, itâs our duty to help our members wherever we can,â Ratcliffe said. âItâs time to move forward and his story will prove to be a strong message for all current and future professional cricketers.â
Lewis has been quick to express his gratitude. âThe PCA has been extremely supportive right from the beginning of this situation,â he said. "Going ahead, I would like to become a part of that, whether itâs giving advice or whether itâs just tugging on the grey matter to find out what happened at this particular time.
"If any of that can help any young player going ahead I am in. I am in 100 per cent.ââ
As his career drew to a close, Lewis made revelations in the News of the World about spot-fixing within the England Test team, also claiming that he been offered money on behalf of Indian bookmakers to help fix an England vs New Zealand match at Old Trafford. He was not in the side at the time.
English cricket has lost a colossus today with the passing of former Yorkshire and England captain Brian Close. RIP.
A hard man.
Indeed. Heâll be forever remembered for answering the call at the age of 45 to face the Windies attack (and particularly Michael Holding) at Old Trafford in 1976.
Another England great has passed away - Frank âTyphoonâ Tyson RIP
What a result for this young England team, to beat the World Number 1 ranked test side by a whopping 241 runs in their Durban lair.
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Test cricket is dead. Talk of making it 4 days and playing under lights to save it.
Toi little too late
You werenât heralding the death of test cricket when you were talking up your beloved Australia before the Ashes last summer.
Youâre England bashing is tiresome at this stage. This is a great for England and English cricket.
As Iâve said elsewhere here, 20/20 cricket is like NFL Redzone, itâs for uncultured oiks with poor attention spans.
Congrats to England for reasserting themselves in the true form of the game.
Spot on. The empty grounds at these bloated farces are testament to that.
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30k at the gabba for the bbl.the mcg was empty the other day
Watched a bit of the highlights of the Australia West Indies earlier, paltry crowd at it. Test cricket is dead.
Cricket australia know that its true. A shortened test format might save it but it isnt working as it is