Ramprakash's fire burns bright

Mark Ramprakash is on the verge of reaching 100 first-class hundreds - a remarkable feat, joining a select club of rare, brilliant batsmen. And yet, the big question remains: how and why could he not transfer his matchless talents onto the world stage? Paul Kimmage meets him for The Sunday Times, and Ramprakash is as fired-up as ever:

He is not impressed. “I’m not interested in what Cricinfo think of my career.”

An observation (my favourite) that during his first life he played with a mind ticking like a room full of a thousand clocks. “In all the decades, I’ve never met a young man who so much needed to succeed. He was obsessed, and it took him a long time to become merely single-minded.”

He’s had enough. “I don’t know where you are getting these quotes from,” he responds, testily.

“That was from Peter Roebuck,” I reply.

“Okay, well let me throw this back at you: why would I be interested in what Peter Roebuck has got to say about me? He has never shared a dressing room with me. I have hardly ever spoken to the man. You are giving me these quotes but I don’t know why you are expecting me to comment on them.”

“I’m interested in whether you agree with his assessment of who you were? What you were?”