THIS summer will mark 10 years since what many Englishmen under the age of the 40 would describe as the zenith of cricket. The 2005 Ashes series when, after numerous embarrassing defeats, English cricket finally re-asserted itself at Test level.

For one of Swindon Cricket Club’s favourite sons, Jon Lewis, it represents one of the highest points in his storied career - and perhaps also one of rare missed opportunity.

Firstly, the landmark moment. The Rose Bowl, June 13, 2005, the first international Twenty20 between England and Australia. The stage where the Churchfields schoolboy played a huge part in setting out England’s stall in the famous Ashes summer.

Lewis dismissed four of the Aussies’ top seven, including two famous baggy green captains, Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke. His other two snares were not bad either, the top-order bully Matthew Hayden and his left-handed accomplice Damien Martyn.

It was Lewis’ first international appearance. At 29, it came as a reward for 10 years of consistency on the county cricket circuit for Gloucestershire, a club he served for 16 years.

Earlier in 2005, he had been in the squad for the two-match Bangladesh Test series without making an appearance.

It is here that the two focal points of that summer meet for Lewis. The Twenty20 was a vital part in establishing a platform for success in the Test series, demonstrating to their swaggering Australian visitors this England team was different, they would not crumble in the face of fierce competition.

For most of his career Lewis considers himself fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time to take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves.

The summer of 2005 was probably the one time when that did not happen.

On the fringes of playing in one of the landmark moments in English cricket, he was the next man in line behind Matthew Hoggard as the orthodox swing bowling component in Duncan Fletcher’s ‘famous four’ pace bowling attack.

Sitting in the old pavilion at the County Ground in Hove, where Lewis latterly plied his trade and is now embarking on the next stage of his career as Sussex’s bowling coach, we discuss that famous summer.

“The first game I played for England at the Rose Bowl was amazing. It set up the Ashes series really nicely, we wanted to go out and put down a real marker as a team,” Lewis recalls.

“I remember the team talk was ‘let’s go out and give it to these guys’ and we really gave it to them. I played a huge part in that game. I picked up four wickets - Ponting, Clarke, Symonds, Martyn - they’re four of the top players. That was special.

“There was an England football match before and the fans had watched it before on big screens at the ground, everyone was really drunk and the atmosphere was like a football game. Everyone got behind the team and it was amazing, a real cauldron.

“That whole T20 and one-day series was all about the Test series. It was a side-show really for what was coming up ahead.

“I remember Simon Jones standing up to Matthew Hayden and Paul Collingwood coming in and giving it, Andrew Flintoff hitting guys, some of their top players and making them think ‘hello’.

"Similar to what Australia did in the first game at Brisbane in the last Ashes series, putting markers down in that first game for what happened later down the series.

“That’s what we did and I think it did have a real big impact on the Australians. They probably thought ‘we’re in for a battle and these guys aren’t scared of us anymore.’

“They were a brilliant team over a long period of time, but we made a real effort to get in their faces in that period and it was great fun to be involved in.”

Having played in that T20 win and the one-day series that followed, Lewis thought he might have been close to being involved in the Ashes series. But when Simon Jones was injured in the fourth Test it was Jimmy Anderson who got the call.

“I was in the squad for the two Test matches against Bangladesh before and then the following year I was in the squad. I must have been in their thoughts, but I never really got a sniff,” he said.

“I think if Hoggard had gone down injured I might have had a go. I think it would have been a like-for-like replacement with Hoggard. That was a lot of the argument as to why I didn’t play a lot of Test cricket through that period, when Hoggard was at the best of his ability.

“He played the game I played, I think they looked at it and thought we were too similar and that’s probably fair enough. Hoggard was a fantastic bowler, but I think I could have done what he did and I didn’t get the opportunity to do it.

“He got in ahead of me earlier in his career and kept his place by bowling well and you’ve got to give him credit for doing that.”

Lewis describes himself as a workmanlike bowler which is honest, even if it undersells the subtlety he displayed at his best. It is certainly true his style came to be appreciated more towards the latter end of his 20s.

The man himself believes he was never truly appreciated by the coach who turned England from a shambolic mess at the end of the 1990s into the occasionally overly-professional outfit they are currently, Duncan Fletcher.

“I’m not sure he liked the way I bowled, I think he liked guys who bowled faster. His philosophy was that if you had guys that bowled faster and accurately they had more chances of taking wickets in Test cricket. To be honest I sort of agree with him,” chuckles Lewis.

“I think you need to have a balanced attack and to have two guys that bowl at around 80 miles per hour, rather than 85 plus, is too many in a team, unless one is a left-armer.

“However if you’ve got a guy who bowls quick and inaccurately then I would pick another guy who was accurate, especially if the conditions suit.”

If 2005 goes down as what could have been, Lewis feels the following year was the one that should have been.

“The game I felt I should have played was the first Test match of the 2006 (series against Sri Lanka) and I actually played the third.

“I came off the back of a performance in an A team game then I felt I should have played the first Test and they picked Sajid Mahmood and Liam Plunkett ahead of me as their pacy bowlers.

“They were looking ahead to the winter in Australia and I understood that, however I felt that was my time to get a go. If I’d got a go and played well over a series, rather than coming in at the end of a series, playing one-dayers, then another series afterwards, then I felt I would have got in and held my place.

“That was a disappointment. If I had played that game at Lord’s I thought I would have had maybe a whole summer against Sri Lanka and Pakistan to bowl well and who knows what would have happened after that.”

Fletcher was replaced by Peter Moores after the terrible World Cup in the West Indies, which Lewis left before a ball was bowled to be with his pregnant wife.

Lewis felt he was more appreciated by the new man in charge, but due to injuries he was not able to return to international reckoning. Despite these near-misses the 39-year-old has no desire to jump in the DeLorean and alter his playing days.

“I feel like I leave my playing career behind with a lot of success and I’m very at ease with what I’ve done. I don’t feel like I left any stone unturned to try and get the best out of myself and I’m very happy to move on,” he explains with a face of honesty.

“If I could do it again, I’d do it the same, I had a lot of fun, met a lot of great people, made a lot of great friends and I really enjoyed it.”

What Lewis said next was interesting and indicated he is happy not to be a young player in today’s game.

“I’m not sure how much fun (it is) since the scientists have taken over cricket, well maybe not taken over, but there’s lot more science now in the game now.

“Being a young player now I feel there’s a bit more pressure and much is expected of you because everything is given to you.

“Whereas when I was a young player nothing was really given to you, you had to find your own way, so less was expected of you.

“Every player now has got a strength and conditioning coach from pretty much 14-15, a physio who looks after them, a blowing coach like me, an academy director and the first team and second team coach - coaches everywhere.

“Sometimes you forget the reason why you start playing. For me you’ve always got to try and keep the memories of how you started playing. I guess for me it was going out in the park with your dad and your mates, because it was fun.

“The scientists are great and they have increased performance levels, increased speed and fitness – stuff like that – the enhancement of skill is definitely there. I understand that and I value it, however it’s not the be all and end all, you’ve still got enjoy playing cricket.”

There is little doubt Lewis enjoyed his playing. He talks with great reverence about his time playing with Gloucestershire, Surrey and Sussex. Why would he not? He won seven trophies, was Gloucester captain for three seasons, took over 1,000 first-class, List A and T20 wickets, as well as even managing a season where he topped 500 runs.

Now he moves on to try and bring Sussex some success with their current and talented first XI bowlers, but also help the south coast county develop their own bowlers, an area where they traditionally struggled.

“It was a seamless transition for me really, which is lucky because as most cricketers have to go off and do something else. There’s not an endless supply of jobs after cricket and it’s always an issue and a worry to transition out of the sport.

“We get paid well. But we don’t get paid a lot in comparison to your Premier League footballers. So we need work to pay the bills and looks after the family. So it’s nice to come straight into a role like this.

“It’s not only a development role for me, but is a broad spectrum of ages of bowlers to work with.

“I’ve got a good group of eight or nine bowlers to work with, once they get to this level it’s about being a man behind them and the guidance role and a bit of technique work with the younger ones.

“Part of my remit is to produce some more homegrown players. I’ve got four guys who have just finished in the academy and have gone off to university, they look quite promising. Then there’s a couple of guys in the academy that look nice as well.

“I need to broaden my horizons and look in the youth sections here and look further afield to see if we can get guys coming through the system here, which has been lacking. It is part of the job and part of the reason they wanted me. If they were producing bowlers left, right and centre they wouldn’t feel the need for a bowling coach.”

Despite his retirement the Jon Lewis story is not over.