A Cricket Life
The Ashes-winning seamer on the swings and arrows of his brilliant career. Interview by Ben Gardner

HOW I GOT INTO CRICKET
My dad was quite sporty and he liked me to play a lot of different sports, but it was more a case of, “What can we do with Matthew to get him out of our hair?”. My choices at school were football, football or football, and I wasn’t too enamoured with football so in the winter I played rugby, and in the summer I played cricket for Pudsey Congs.
I started at 11 and that’s where my love for playing the game began. I played...