He speaks with a broad Lancashire accent, but he's an Essex boy now through and through.

And when he's not skippering the county on the cricket field, he loves nothing more than to get away from it all with "Mrs Ronnie" - his wife Lorraine - and "Little Horse", his big nine-month old Doberman dog, Eric.

That's Jack the Lad Ronnie Irani, red blooded Lancastrian, passionate and fiercely competitive England Test all-rounder and, for the past 19 days, the newly appointed captain of Essex County Cricket Club.

"It's a new millennium, a new era," said the popular County Ground hero. "I've got the best seat in the house and from now on we do things the Ronnie way.

"I love my life, I love my cricket, I love the people of Essex and I know every Essex supporter would love to be me. I enjoy a great rapport with them all. Nothing's going to change.

"We've just come through a winter of turmoil and my First task is to make the fans happy and the county successful again.

"And I still have a burning desire to play more Test cricket. That's how I want all my players to be - to aim for the top, always striving to get better.

"If I get those two qualities from them there's no reason why we can't be successful. I ask only two things of them - to be fit and to stay hungry. If they can't do that they won't survive.

"I can't go out and play their games for them. They're all team members. The team must always comes first. If somebody sacrifices themselves for the team I'll be the first to encourage them and understand."

That's how it's always been from the moment "sports mad" Irani came into this world.

Born within sight of the boundary boards at Heaton Cricket Club near Leigh in Lancashire, where his dad Jimmy played league cricket in the Bolton area, Ronnie, 28, was brought up with the game.

"I was always mucking about with a bat or ball," he says. "And when I was around four-years-old I remember feeling ten feet tall when my dad let me carry his kit bag.

"It was the highlight of my life when dad allowed me to pack his bag and whiten his cricket boots. I knew then that I wanted to play cricket for a living. I could see myself doing it.

"I'm a born seven-day-a-week cricketer, but I gave up a lot to achieve it. There were a lot of sacrifices along the way and I remember my old school buddy, a scratch golfer by the age of 13-years-old, pulling up alongside me one day sometime later and in a bragging way asking - 'what no wheels yet?'

"But as my cricket quickly soared, his golf went rapidly downhill and all those schoolboy nights spent hanging round the cricket club longing for a bat and a bowl were worth it.

"I used to wait all night sometimes and felt really lucky if I got so much as 20 balls bowled at me."

An exciting hard-hitting batsman and lively medium-fast bowler, Ronnie quickly made his mark as an all-rounder at Smithhills Comprehensive School in Bolton where he went on to represent Lancashire Schools at Under-13, 15 and 19 levels.

He also played for England Schools Under-15s and for Young England against Australia nine years ago, where he was named as the Man of the Series after hitting a century, and three half-centuries in six innings.

Ronnie had already made his First Class debut for Lancashire by then, before moving to Essex in 1994 where his career has well and truly taken off.

Always ready to try his hand, not to mention his feet, at any sport Ronnie also dabbled in a spot of Thai boxing and as an 11-year-old schoolboy he was leading scorer for Bolton Boys Federation football team.

"I've played alongside some of the big names in the game," said Ronnie. "Players like Leeds United's England international Jason Wilcox, when I was 12, Manchester City's Gary Flitcroft and Preston North End's Ryan Kidd."

A striker in the Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke mould in his mid-teenage years, he was leading scorer for Horwich RMI now known as Leigh RMI, current leaders of the Unibond Premier League.

Ronnie has also been a Manchester United season ticket holder since he was six-years-old and with his dad he regularly watched the Red Devils' and Bolton Wanderers' home games on alternate Saturdays.

But cricket has always been his first love and, keen to make it to the top, Ronnie left his beloved Lancashire and Old Trafford in the summer of 1994 to carve out a highly successful new life for himself with Essex.

Within two years he was making his England Test and one-day international debuts.

And when he's not winning Lord's cup finals for his county - he has NatWest Trophy and Benson and Hedges Cup winners medals - he loves to get away from it all either fly fishing for trout with Essex guru Keith Fletcher, or, in his own words: "Walking - just me, my wife and the dog. Isn't life great!"

You'll be able to read Ronnie Irani's weekly Echosport column throughout the summer - starting on Thursday April 20.

Captain marvel - new Essex skipper Ronnie Irani

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.