Paul Nixon settles down to the quiet life
As former England wicketkeeper Paul Nixon's retires, Jon Culley, writing in the Independent , looks back on a career beset by the clinical inability to concentrate.
Nikita Bastian
25-Feb-2013
As former England wicketkeeper Paul Nixon's retires, Jon Culley, writing in the Independent, looks back on a career beset by the clinical inability to concentrate.
[Michael] Vaughan and [Duncan] Fletcher liked Nixon's effervescent energy, believing the endless chatter for which he was renowned behind the stumps would lift team-mates and distract opponents. Steve Waugh, the former Australian captain with whom he would often share dinner when they both played for Kent, likened him to a mosquito he wanted to swat.
Given that sledging is almost in a wicketkeeper's job description, no one thought Nixon's behaviour particularly odd. Yet he now believes it was this inherent hyperactivity that perhaps denied him earlier recognition ... "It definitely harmed my cricket over the first few years ... The bowler could be running in and I'd be looking at field placings when I should have been concentrating only on the ball."
Nikita Bastian is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo