No Boundaries - Passion and Pain On and Off the Pitch. Ronnie Irani

about it?’

      With two still clinging to my back, I grabbed him and pushed him halfway over a wall and gave him a smack.

      A woman’s voice yelled, ‘Stop it! Stop it!’ She started to have a go at me but I interrupted her: ‘Don’t give me a hard time! We just came for a quiet drink and this lot jumped us. They smashed up my mate’s car and all for no reason. You should be having a go at them!’ With that we got back in the car and drove off.

      We got the window fixed the next morning before the mum spotted the damage and I heard that the guy I’d hit wasn’t too badly hurt. I was a bit concerned that Lancashire might take action against me for fighting but nothing was said. Word certainly got back to the dressing room, though, because I noticed a marked reduction in the verbals after that.

      Nevertheless, I was beginning to think that hanging around Lancashire wasn’t going to fulfil my ambition of regular county cricket. Maybe I should forget my dream of representing my home county and think of moving elsewhere.