How We Met: 48: David Gower and Allan Lamb

Cricketers David Gower, 35, and Allan Lamb, 38, both former England captains, have been friends since Lamb joined the Test side in 1982. They are notorious for their gourmet tastes and their sometimes lighthearted approach to the game. Gower went to King's School, Canterbury, played first for Leicestershire and now for Hampshire. He marries Thorunn Nash in Winchester in September.

Allan Lamb was born of British parents in Cape Province, South Africa. He plays for Northamptonshire and lives there with his wife, Lindsay, and two small children.

ALLAN LAMB: I first met David properly in 1982 in a one-day match against India at Leeds. We'd already played against each other in county cricket, but that was our first real meeting and the beginning of our friendship. I'd come over here from South Africa to play cricket and done my four years' qualifying, but I was still unsure how players would take to me because of my background, so that day in the Leeds dressing room I was rather scared. Ian Botham was in there, and Bob Willis, but David just came over to me and helped me through it. I couldn't have asked for anything better. It wasn't that I felt I couldn't do it, I always knew I was good enough to play, but I'm a team man, not a loner, and I needed someone to say, 'You're part of the business.' We've been friends ever since.

We're very different in character. I tend to get despondent and have to try to hide away that little nervous feeling, and he gets me going again. He's the more relaxed character, very cool, although a lot of that is image: people accuse him of not trying when he actually is, and he gets hurt by what's written about him.

David has a very short fuse, and if you get him at the wrong time he'll snap. He's someone who keeps a lot to himself - people don't really know him. His love of children has never been of the highest order - I can't wait to see him when he's got one of his own. He always shows a very nice attitude to my two, but deep down I know he gets irritated and they annoy him immensely. But I know Thorunn will provide him with some wonderful children. She's perfect for him - she's mellowed him and changed him.

I've been married since 1979, and it's tough on the wives. Lindsay and I had known each other in South Africa, and then she was doing a trip round the world and we met up again. She likes to travel and usually comes out for part of the trip if we're playing abroad, but now the children are at school age it's difficult. David and Lindsay have always got along really well, and I think he's always been able to talk things over with her. I tell David most things, too; there's not much he doesn't know about me.

We share a lot of interests. He's been my tutor in wine and food over the past 10 years, and I'm doing my best to work my way through his excellent cellar. He finally convinced me that if I drank decent wine I wouldn't have a hangover, and it worked. When you're on tour you tend to settle into groups of people with a shared outlook, and I think a lot of people tend to be frightened of David because his love of wines can be a bit expensive. When he says, 'Anyone for dinner?' people tend to melt away, remembering the last time when they were stung for sixty dollars for a couple of glasses of wine.

We do have a superstition over duck, though - we never eat it if we've still got to bat the next day. This stems back to a few years ago, when we were playing Pakistan. They'd scored 500, and David, Robin Jackman and myself took ourselves off to a restaurant that evening in St John's Wood and had the canard. The next day all three of us were out for a duck: I think the wine may have had something to do with it, as well.

We share a joke on the field. We were playing each other last weekend, and when I was batting, David, who was fielding at slip, remarked that I must have had a good bottle of red last night, the way I was going. I did go on to get 160, though.

I suppose David's ultimate joke was when he buzzed the ground in a Tiger Moth when we were in Australia. I was captain at the time, so I wouldn't have been able to give him permission to do it - and anyway I didn't believe him when he asked to borrow some money to hire a plane. I was batting, and I realised he'd been serious as soon as I heard the plane's engine. I just hit the deck and yelled at the bowler to do the same. I could see his face grinning through the window, so close they nearly blew the bails off.

I think we'll always be friends now - not in the sense of remembering each other's birthdays, because we don't - but knowing the other is there. He calls me Lambie, Joseph (my second name) or Al. I call him Lubo, and I used to call him Shag, but not any more.

DAVID GOWER: I clearly remembered the first time I played for England and walked into the dressing room. I was 21, nervous and silent, and although it didn't take long to get assimilated, it made me realise the importance of making people welcome, and that's what I tried to do for Allan.

Now I look back over the past 10 years and I think we've supported each other through all sorts of things. I have one or two friends left from schooldays, but it's very hard to stay in touch, and now I'd count Allan as one of my closest friends.

We don't see each other as often as we did when I played for Leicestershire, because then it was only a half hour drive to his home in Northamptonshire. Now that I live in the south, we can't just drop in. I've always found it very easy to talk to both Allan and Lindsay, even though you sometimes have to wait until three o'clock in the morning to get them on their own; Lindsay has a habit of asking about 15 people to dinner - she loves to entertain. I've never been embarrassed to share anything with these people, and we make a point of getting together as a foursome as often as possible. It also makes sense and is much nicer to stay with friends around the county cricket circuit in the summer, so I'm really glad when they come and stay.

I could never have married Allan, he's so untidy. We've shared a room twice on tour, and his mess was indescribable. The first time was in Dubai when I went to bed at about half past two in the morning and he went off to play snooker and carried on playing until morning and never went to bed. I just slept on, surrounded by his mess. He needs much less sleep than I do, and he finds getting up in the morning a lot easier: he has more stamina and can keep going longer. The second time was in Pakistan and we had a good laugh ordering eight eggs from room service in the middle of the night; it's always safest to stick to eggs over there. When you get more senior in the team you get your own room, so those were the only occasions.

Touring can really get you down, seeing the same faces all the time, so sharing the same outlook with Allan on many things has helped. I've tried to train him over food and wine, and finally weaned him off the cheap plonk. Ian Botham and Bob Willis helped tutor him, as well, and I'm glad to say that Allan is now of such a high standard he carries on the good work when I'm missing. We both like the same sports. We spent a lot of time at the beach windsurfing in the West Indies in 1986 when I was captain and made net practice optional. I liked that - I thought it was a good move, although there were some people who seemed to disagree. That was the time we played five and lost five.

We learnt to ski together, and managed to collide although we were the only people apart from the instructor on this empty piste. We're both members of the Cresta Club, and fully insured to go down the run - no wonder Lloyd's is in trouble. It's a fantastic feeling, a great buzz - and we reckon that going down that is a very good pre-season test for nerves and reflexes if you've go to go out there and face some West Indian bowling.

I saw the Tiger Moth incident as a means of being able to see the game properly . . . it was one of those grounds where you can only see from the side. I'd made a very good 13 in the morning, and as Allan was batting rather well I thought it would be a sensible tactical approach to watch him from the air, so I collected my expenses from the manager and hired two planes. John Morris in the other one almost hit the parliament building, but I got a very good view.

Lambie's a good guy. He's the sort you'd classify as a good tourist, and when you need someone to be up and cheerful, he's doing that. For an old boy, he's got good stamina.