Interview: Ian Bell

Do not tell Ian Bell that young people just cannot concentrate any more. Tim Lamb, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, might have voiced that notion last week to justify the introduction of a 20-over county competition designed to seduce the flightiest minds. But Bell is out to prove himself an exception. Here, it is increasingly whispered, is a young batsman who will concentrate for England, a man bent upon occupying the crease for so long that he might well need United Nations approval to do it - the natural replacement, no less, for Michael Atherton. Twenty-over cricket is hardly time enough for him to scratch his guard.

When England announced all but one of their 12 central contracts last week, Bell's face could be taken to be the one bearing a large question mark. He is the final contracted player that the selectors, in their most ambitious moments, would like to name next month, ahead of such regular performers as Craig White or Mark Ramprakash, or younger bowlers of more suspect temperament - the likes of Alex Tudor and Steve Harmison. Over the next fortnight, it is the Bell debate which will sound repeatedly.

A casual glance in his bedroom in the family home on the outskirts of Rugby suggested it was much in keeping with the average 20-year-old eager to make it big in international sport: a crumpled England shirt in one corner of the room, some light weights under a chair, a copy of Maxim on a magazine pile in the corner. Not a meditation cushion or a book of Zen philosophy in sight.

But mental strength has always been his forte. "People have always said my concentration is good," he said. "I've worked on it ever since I was very young. When I'm in I want to bat all day. You should never waste an opportunity."

In many ways Bell is as hyperactive as any healthy, athletic young man. Ask him if he ever sits down and he will reply: "Only in a golf buggy" - he plays for relaxation off a 12 handicap. He played junior rugby union just down the road for Rugby Lions and, at 15, spent some time at Coventry City's school of excellence as a right-back. "I was doing that largely to keep fit, though," he said. "When Warwickshire offered me a cricket contract there was no doubt in my mind. Cricket has always been far and away my first love."

That love may be consummated, barring a collapse in form, this summer with a Test debut against either Sri Lanka or India, followed by the promise of an Ashes tour to Australia in the winter. Warwickshire might have been overprotective - he has only 13 first-class matches to his credit, in which he has averaged 55, and he only just got in the side last season in time to help them to promotion - but England's faith is absolute.

He has met Atherton only twice, and then without much in the way of conversation, when on England 12th man duty. "I'm no carbon copy, but Athers is my role model and my method in four-day cricket is to bat for long periods of time," he said. But with Atherton's retirement the need for his replacement has become more pressing.

We were chatting in what might be called the Ian Bell Memorabilia Room, with framed representative shirts filling one wall, England touring squads another. He will spend less time here in the future because the time has come to move into an apartment in Birmingham, closer to Warwickshire's ground at Edgbaston. But it was in this room, suitably, that Bell's ambitions were fired as he watched, mesmerised, Atherton's celebrated batting resistance in the Trent Bridge gloaming against Allan Donald, the South African fast bowler. England have since turned the encounter into an educational video - with running commentaries by both players - on the importance of mental strength.

"When I saw that innings live I was fascinated," he said. "It kicked me on, made me realise how much I wanted to play Test cricket. It was an innings that needed courage and technique, and for Athers to know at the end of it all that he had won the battle must have been so satisfying."

Bell, at 5ft 9in and 12st, is far from physically assertive. Heavily freckled and blue-eyed, he is relaxed and, according to friends and colleagues, he is increasingly self-assured. There is no underlying sense of intellectual challenge, or the cussed self-reliance that was at the heart of Atherton's protective mechanism. His own inner strength is more disguised.

He has been fast-tracked so determinedly through England's age-group sides, from Under-14 onwards, that he has already played in all the Test countries apart from Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. He is barely 20 - in the family home birthday cards, largely of a sporting flavour, still filled the windowsill - but his schedule has been so demanding that he may be ready for a winter off before he even makes his international debut.

He has made such sacrifices since 14, uncomplainingly, because he professes to love touring and his ambition for England success is uncompromising. Danielle, his girlfriend of 2 years' standing, occasionally glanced in his direction for approval as she accepted the chance to describe his approach. "You are very ambitious, aren't you?" she said. "You can tell how much cricket means to him. It just takes over. You are determined to get there, aren't you? You don't ever take me out, apart from Edgbaston, do you? You miss lots of things, we both do, but I suppose there is always a mobile phone."

From the outset, he has always had a need to be mature beyond his years. His first England Under-19 tour came at 16 in New Zealand when Mike Gatting, the tour manager, kept a sympathetic eye on him. "He was very supportive and I learned a few things - like never go behind him in the queue for the buffet."

By the following year Bell was Under-19 captain in the World Cup in Sri Lanka. He won praise as a batting prodigy in New Zealand, for courageous knocks against West Indies quicks, and for using his feet against the Indian spinners. He made nought on his first-class debut for Warwickshire but made his mark last summer by becoming the youngest championship century-maker in the county's history when he struck 103 against Nottinghamshire.

His first port of call when he returned from New Zealand, where he had been summoned as batting cover on the senior tour, was to Neal Abberley, the former Warwickshire opening batsman and Second XI coach, and his mentor since the age of 10. "It's good to have someone you can trust, someone who knows your game inside out," he said.

Prospective England players are besieged by advisers, but those who present it as mollycoddling are wide of the mark. The time spent with Rod Marsh at the England Academy in Adelaide this winter underlined to Bell the importance of self-reliance.

"You have to be your own coach," he said. "When you are struggling for form in the middle, it is down to you to take action to sort it out."

Integral to this insistence on self-assessment was the Academy players' use of diaries, in which they jotted down daily notes about their playing performances under subheadings such as session details, session goals and self-evaluation.

Flick through the pages of Bell's personal organiser for clues to his mindset and you might find the following regular phrases: left the ball well, played straight, stayed patient. After a first-innings failure against Australian Capital Territories he wrote: "Played poor shot because I wasn't in the right mood. Must remember to get into the right frame of mind." One senses it was the sort of entry that will not often be repeated in the years ahead.

He is relishing the summer that lies ahead. "People have said that if I get a couple of 100s early in the season then I have a great chance of playing for England this summer. But I'm only 20 and I can't give too much thought to it.

"It was massively important, for Warwickshire and for me, that we got promoted last year. These days, if you're ambitious, the First Division is the only place to be. If I keep doing well, then one day Test cricket will come around."

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