'I did think about hanging up the gloves but in my heart of hearts I wanted to keep carrying on'

SAM MORSHEAD: In time, James Foster will become a more-than-useful addition to any county’s staff. For now, he has something much more pressing to concentrate on - the defence of a Championship title

For a man whose reputation and livelihood have been built around fast reactions, James Foster certainly took his time before committing to Essex for another year.

His hesitation was understandable.

Offered an extension to his contract at Chelmsford in September, it was not until November that the wicketkeeper put pen to paper, following conversations with a selection of newly-retired former pros and a handful of courting counties.

At 37 - he’ll be 38 on the third day of the new County Championship season - the equation facing Foster was complex.

On one hand, the ex-England international is convinced he has more than 12 months left at the top of the domestic game - and the viral videos of his extraordinary glovework which circulated on social media last season are all the proof doubters need to see he isn’t bluffing.

On the other, though, Foster is a thoughtful individual and, with three young girls to look after and a life after cricket to plan for, opting for a dressing-room role above its backroom equivalent brings with it something of a risk.

^{James Foster is ready for his 19th first-class season}

“At the time I was hoping for a longer contract,” Foster admits to The Cricketer, candidly. He had to pass up a full-time position at Forest School, where he coaches in the winter, to sign back on with Essex.

“Essex offered me one year, which I am grateful for, and once I weighed it all up I decided that I still want to play cricket, mainly because I still enjoy it.

“Ultimately, you’re a long time retired and I spoke to a lot of people about finishing and that was a comment that was mentioned a lot.

“I still feel like I can do the business and I want to keep playing for as long as I feel I can.

“I did think about hanging up the gloves but in my heart of hearts I wanted to keep carrying on.”

He reels of a list of names, all of whom have played the game well beyond his current age - Alec Stewart, Marcus Trescothick, Graham Gooch, Mark Ramprakash - to make his point.

“I know it’s only a small selection of these type of players,” he admits. “But I enjoy the buzz that cricket gives me, I enjoy being involved in winning matches and helping a team win a game. I get a lot of satisfaction out of that.”

Foster’s story is well-known: the shuttle-like early trajectory, an England call-up after just four first-class matches, that cruel broken arm, flirtations with the national one-day setup, regular flashes of brilliance but, ultimately, a career spent predominantly gracing the county circuit.

FOSTER: THE KNEES CREAK A BIT BUT I FEEL GOOD

James Foster says his body still feels in good nick as he approaches his 38th birthday.

Foster enters his 19th season of county cricket with Essex in 2018 but he insists he is not struggling with wear and tear.

“I train hard and I do what I’m told to do by the fitness guys but I guess I’m lucky in that I’ve not had to deal with too many injuries,” he says.

“I guess my body type is that I don’t have a massive amount of weight to worry about. The knees might creak a little bit more when I go up the stairs, maybe a little more than they did when I was younger, but the body feels good. I’m quite lucky.

And he is adamant his reactions aren’t suffering, either.

“I thought when you get older it would get easier in a way because you can go with your experience but actually I’ve found you’ve still got to work as hard,” he says.

“It’s about practising smarter so you get more out of your time, rather than catching or hitting an aimless amount of balls.

“I’ve got to make sure I’m getting the tough practice in so I make sure I can move quicker and ensure I have faster reactions."

Essex fans will not be drawn into a squabble about that. The Chelmsford regulars have been able to watch Foster in the flesh for the best part of two decades and they are about to get a season more, yet it remains one of the oddities of recent years that the keeper only won a fifth of the number of caps as Geraint Jones and 50 per cent fewer than Tim Ambrose.

That said, he is not one to look bitterly backwards. Instead, Foster prefers to think of the future; a future which will most certainly involve coaching.

“Realistically, it’s not going to last forever so I’ve got to keep half-an-eye on what’s going on when my playing career finishes,” he says.

“I love my coaching and that’s something which I’ve really enjoyed. A few years ago I would have been unsure about what I wanted to do when I finish but I really love coaching and I’ve had a really good taste of it this winter.”

That “taste” is more three-course feast than hors d'oeuvre.

Over the past six months Foster has spent time with Mahela Jayawardene’s Khulna Titans in the Bangladesh Premier League, enjoyed a stint with England in Australia and imparted a few words of wisdom to the Lions at their Desert Springs training camp in Spain, in addition to his residency as cricket professional at Forest School.

^{Foster is keen to get into coaching when he hangs up his gloves}

That’s all been crammed in alongside training for another full Championship campaign, his 19th since his first-class debut in 2000.

How does he do it?

“You’re smarter with your time when you get older,” he says. “I’m a family man, I have three little girls so they keep me very busy and luckily I’ve got a fabulous wife who keeps on top of it all.”

The Cricketer asks Foster if he thinks of himself as a natural coach.

“It’s difficult for me to answer that,” he says.

“I believe that you’re always going to be learning from a coaching point of view. When you think you know it all as a coach, that’s dangerous territory to be in.

JAMES FOSTER: CAREER DISMISSALS

First-class: 823 catches, 60 stumpings

List A: 246 catches, 65 stumpings

T20: 79 catches, 46 stumpings

“I always thought coaching was about technical coaching, how well you know the game and passing on knowledge which will improve someone, which will quicken up their learning… but at the higher end - international and franchise cricket - a lot of it is about man-management.

“Getting that right is something that really intrigues me and it’s something I’m actively trying to understand - whether that’s attending courses or speaking to people one-on-one.”

Foster spends his spare time researching training techniques from other sports, learning about elements of sports psychology and discovering how both can be interpreted into cricket.

In time, he will become a more-than-useful addition to any county’s staff. For now, he has something much more pressing to concentrate on - the defence of a Championship title neither he nor the majority of the county-watching public saw coming.

^{The 37-year-old has won seven Test caps for England}

“I never thought we were going to win the Championship,” he says. “At the start of last season, if anyone had said that, we’d have thought they were kidding themselves and yet we won it in style in the end.

“For anyone to think that this season we’re just going to rock up and do the same again would be very foolish.

“There might be a different psychological angle to it as well, having won the Championship. It’s something that we’ve never experienced before.

“As an old bloke like myself, I’m very excited about that and trying to help us get it right.”

James Foster was speaking at the official presentation of the Lord’s Taverners ECB County Championship trophy to Essex