Snape sets sail on voyage from journeyman to world traveller

If you had asked Jeremy Snape two years ago about playing for England he would have politely pointed out that he was busy trying to establish a place in his new county side. The same question to those not closely involved in cricket, and probably to some with a passion for it, might have elicited another question: "Who's Jeremy Snape?" Then, he was a 26-year-old, largely unfulfilled all-rounder, batsman/off-spinner who had been on Northamptonshire's books for nine years and did not play one first-class match in his final season at the club.

Now, he is an integral part of a successful Gloucestershire team and one of the new boys who has been summoned to try to redeem England's woeful one-day form. Indeed, one of those all-rounders much sought after by Duncan Fletcher.

Snape embarked for Zimbabwe on Wednesday in a party of 16, of whom three have never played inter-national cricket and five others have only a passing acquaintanceship with it. Next Wednesday, they will play the first of five one-dayers in 11 days. It is a short, intense tour, designed as the first, belated attempt to try to mould a new England team in time for the 2003 World Cup.

Given the shortage of time, some snap judgements, so to speak, might have to be made or hunches played. In Snape at least the selectors have alighted on not only a player who has made significant advances as a batsman and fielder – he made four hundreds last summer – but on a thinking cricketer who has learnt from his past.

"I know I'll have to assess things quickly," he said. "There are many subtleties in the game and after being told which role I'm expected to perform it will be up to me to respond. I wouldn't say they've picked the best 16 cricketers in the country but they must have seen something they want to pursue and manipulate into a team that can gel together."

Snape almost certainly isn't wrong in that analysis. He might have added that they should have done it two years ago when there was some breathing space between World Cups. Listening to him, there is no doubt that he is prepared to work his socks off and learn quickly. He knows he has no option.

Fletcher talks frequently about what such and such a player might bring to the party. What Snape will bring is eagerness, thoughtfulness, fitness and confidence born out of Gloucestershire's success. There has been outcry in the west country about the county's lack of representation in England sides. They won two one-day trophies in 1999, three in 2000 and although they regressed somewhat in 2001 they still managed another Lord's final. Presumably they must have been doing something right.

"Every great team has an era, but to reach that peak it takes a lot of things to go right, the correct timing. Certainly for the first two years we were the fittest side, so that we retained our freshness. Take fielding. You can say a player is a good fielder but it doesn't mean much. It's where he is a good fielder. We became strong because we knew what our bowlers were doing, the pace of the wicket, who to stick at what angle and how to attack with different lines." If he is honest – and he is – Snape is still a little bewildered by his England call-up. Not surprised, perhaps, but not exactly expecting it either.

But he displays no bitterness about the way the Glorious Glosters have been studiously ignored, save for infrequent calls to their captain, Mark Alleyne. "Players have very specific skills and although we have some fine players who could definitely perform on the international stage, England at that time might have wanted very different skills." He managed that with a straight face, even though it was perfectly obvious that England had no clue about what they wanted and did not seem to be of much of a mind to do anything about it. The upshot is a sequence of 11 straight defeats.

Snape was introduced early to cricket. Although his father did not play, his godfather is David Steele. The godson was two when Steele enjoyed his annus mirabilis in 1975, called up by England at 33 to repel Dennis Lillee and succeeding so well that he was made BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

As a schoolboy he was a batsman who bowled medium pace. When captain of the England Under-15 side he opened the bowling and went in at four. Although he was from Staffordshire, it was perhaps inevitable that he should end up at Steele's county, Northamptonshire. "I had my debut trial on the same day as Curtly Ambrose, who wasn't very well-known then. There's a photograph of us together, a small lad with long blond hair next to a gangly West Indian in a string vest. We shared a net ball."

Snape, who was advised to turn to off-spin when he realised he would be 5ft 8in for the rest of his life, never quite made it at Northamptonshire after graduating from Durham University. In 1998, he decided he would have to leave. Late that summer he made a century for Northamptonshire Seconds against Gloucestershire. They wanted to talk, he listened. They shoved him straight into the first team.

The dividends were immediate. In late May of that first season, he had made his highest score, a maiden century beckoned. He was on 98, the last man was at the wicket. Snape did not know what to do. One of the umpires was telling him to wait for a bad ball, the other was telling him to run down the wicket and slog. He had already faced 14 balls without another run when he decided on the latter policy. Before he could employ it the last man got out. But he learnt from it.

"When Essex batted, the difference was made quite clear to me. Stuart Law reached 99. Just as the ball was about to be bowled he turned to me at backward point and said, 'Snapey, this is how you do it' before promptly running one off his hip and shouting from the other end, 'There you go, mate'. At last, this season, Snape made it. First, he made a one-day hundred with the county having lost four cheap wickets. It was beautifully judged, initially rebuffing the attack by Nottinghamshire and then taking it to them. A week later he had his first first-class hundred and added two more by the end of the season.

To make it internationally, he desperately needs to do more bowling, as 153 first-class and 63 one-day overs in 2001 testify. But he is bright, aware and thoughtful, and when he returns from Zimbabwe he will have a clear response on the subject of playing for England.