Ian Bell has been awarded honorary life-membership by Warwickshire to commemorate his milestone of playing 100 Test matches.
When Bell took the field against Sri Lanka at Headingley last week he became the first Bear on the illustrious list of players (Alex Stewart, Graham Gooch, David Gower, Michael Atherton, Colin Cowdrey, Geoffrey Boycott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Botham, Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss and Graham Thorpe) to play a century of Tests for England.
He was presented with the customary gift by the national set-up. But Warwickshire were keen to also make an appropriate gesture to a player whose DNA is imprinted with the Bear and Ragged Staff.
Born in Dunchurch and nurtured as a cricketer and young man at Edgbaston since the age of ten, Bell has made it clear that when his England career is over he intends to return to his county full-time as captain and then coach.
He is a life-long Bear – and now he is to be a life-long member.
“For a player to be awarded honorary life-membership while still on the playing roster is exceptional,” said Warwickshire chief executive Colin Povey. “But Belly is an exceptional cricketer.
“I don’t think there are many players in this day and age who will play for one club all their career. But Ian is a Bear through and through and we are very proud of him as a cricketer and also as a person.
“He is just a good guy, down-to-earth and unchanged by all his success. Despite the fact that he is a genuine world superstar and top-quality player, he is always the same as he ever was around the club.
“I have early memories from my time here of him coming back from England duty and making a bee-line for the age-group dinners at the end of the season to be there for the kids coning through the system just like he once did.
“I recall one time when he was between England games and wanted a bat and we didn’t have a first-team game so he went and happily played for the 2nds at Leicester. And that’s a mark of the man – he is happy and proud to be a club man, as good a player as he is.”
Recently named as England’s player-of-the-year for 2013/14, Bell has batted as well as ever in the last 12 months, not least in his appearances for the Bears this season when he averaged 72.29 in eight championship innings, most of which were played on bowler-friendly pitches.
Even with 100 Tests under his belt (he is the 60th player in world cricket to play that many), it is likely to be some time before Bell is back with the Bears more than fleetingly.
“Ian keeps himself in great shape and, as a batter, you can probably play a bit longer,” said Povey. “He is in a fantastic vein of form at the moment and looks nailed-on in the England side for a good while longer.” Bears legend Dennis Amiss certainly believes so. Former Warwickshire and England batsman Amiss reckons that his successor for county and country Bell is a long way from finished yet.
“Ian knows he is a top Test player now,” he said. “And at 32, as a batsman, you are in your prime. He probably has five more years with England and he could break all records.
“He has nearly 8,000 Test runs under his belt and can walk tall and he does come out to bat in imposing fashion. He used to walk out a little bit diffidently and we’d say ‘come on Belly, look the part!’ He does now.
“Everybody respects him in the game and, once you know that, that gives you a lot of confidence. I like his style on the field. He doesn’t say anything but just gets on with it and he could get a stack more records in Test cricket yet because this is the time to cash in now.”
Bell’s international career has certainly not been without its glitches, not least very early on. After less than a year as a Test cricketer, he was pitched into the cauldron of an Ashes series against an Australia side well-accustomed to beating England and still driven by two of the greatest ever bowlers – Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.
Between them, that pair meted out his what remains Bell’s only pair in Test cricket, in the famous Oval Test of 2005. Warne added some typically charmless taunting into the mix but Bell shrugged it off and overcame the setback, as he did again when dropped by England in February 2009 after they were 51 all out against West Indies at Sabina Park.
Such tests of temperament have to be confronted and passed by cricketers destined for the top-drawer, insists Amiss.
“When you come into the England side for a year or two you always think the older ones are better players than you,” Amiss said. “I came into the team with people like Colin Cowdrey, Tom Graveney, Ted Dexter and Kenny Barrington and always thought they were much better than I’ll ever be.
“But then suddenly they go and you become a senior player in the side and realise that you have got to step up. Belly has realised that for a year or two now and he has handled it brilliantly.
“Over his years in the England team he has had dips like every player does, even the best. It is bruising to go through that as a young player. Suddenly these great bowlers are knocking you over and you sometimes question whether you are ever going to be good enough to play and be consistent enough to take over the mantle as a senior player.
“But Belly has dealt with all that. Technically he is our best player and hopefully he can fill his boots this summer and then it will be Australia again next year and he knows, and they know, what he can do against them.”
