JOHN Crawley has come up against his fair share of fiery seamers over a long and distinguished career.

The former Lancashire, Hampshire and England batsman, who boasts four Test centuries to his name, has played cat and mouse with Courtney Walsh, Glenn McGrath and Sean Pollock amongst others across 19 years in the professional game.

So Chris Tremlett - England’s Ashes surprise package - should not take Crawley’s praise of his old clubmate lightly, with the 39-year-old branding the gangly six-foot seven-inch spearhead as one of the world’s best bowlers.

“When things are in his favour I think he’s easily amongst the best bowlers,” he said.

“On his day he is brilliant, when his rhythm is up and his confidence is up - and his confidence was obviously up when he got picked - he’s up there with the best in the world.”

Crawley was a senior pro for the duration of Tremlett’s development at the Rose Bowl, and revealed how fragile, both physically and mentally, the man who snared 17 Australian batsmen in three Tests was as a youngster.

But since then Tremlett has toughened up both aspects of his game, much to the delight of his ex-skipper.

“He’s struggled a little bit because he was growing into a very big frame and kept getting injured all the time,” said Crawley.

“He then struggled getting over those injuries mentally and spending time on the sidelines and losing rhythm.

“He’ll just have to find, if he goes through a bad trot and has a few niggles, how to get over that mentally in the future.

“But he’s older now and more grown up, so he’ll be able to deal with that.”

Whilst Tremlett was moulded on the south coast, his game has been reinvigourated at Surrey after a move to London last year.

And Crawley believes plying his trade day-to-day on the concrete belter Oval strip will only do the 29-year-old good as he seeks to build on his five Test caps and 26 wickets at an impressive 24.34 apiece.

“We worked very hard with him and it was a big shame when he left and went to Surrey,” said Crawley.

“He wanted to go to a pitch which had more bounce in it to suit his type of bowling.

“Hampshire in my time was a pretty bumpy surface but now it’s very even and very bowler-friendly and it wasn’t doing his bowling any good.”