sport news Dermot Reeve opens up on being an irritant, his cocaine addiction and his ...

Dermot Reeve is reflecting on a recent speaking engagement in Cheshire when something unexpected happens. He breaks into a rap.

It is 27 years since he steered Warwickshire to within a game of a unique quadruple, almost three decades since he played in a World Cup final. But on this evidence, he has lost little of the energy that made him such an inspiring captain — and such an irritating opponent.

The rap, written a decade ago, chronicles the anguish of a drug addiction that cost Reeve a Channel 4 commentary gig in 2005. Now, in a pub car park in Hampton in Arden, the bucolic Warwickshire village he calls home, it is dusted off without hesitation or self-consciousness.

It begins: ‘The woman on the cocaine helpline hung up on me when I said I met the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Amsterdam. That seemed a good thing. As to her statement, “No good happens with Charlie”, it was hard to believe at the time. He was becoming my best friend…’ On it goes, detailing the battle between two internal voices — rational versus subconscious.

‘You’ve lost your wife, your kids, and time. What to do? F*** it, let’s do another line.’ The rap ends with a choice, ‘Medicate or meditate.’ Reeve seems more meditative these days. Now he wants a route back into a game he still loves.

The game, it’s fair to say, has not always loved him. ‘Marmite, yeah,’ he says. ‘I was probably the most disliked person in county cricket. But if I could get inside an opponent’s head by clapping my hands and going, “Has anyone seen this guy bat in the second team? How are we going to get Jason out?” — when his name was John…’

Reeve’s active mind means he doesn’t finish all his sentences. But it has often meant he was ahead of the curve. In Winning Ways, written with journalist Pat Murphy in 1996, he argues for a 20-over competition, central contracts and a 14-match championship season. Tick, tick and tick.

And he was no respecter of reputations. As coach of Somerset in 2000, he came on as substitute fielder against Kent at Bath and proceeded to abuse the India great Rahul Dravid.

‘He was the Wall of India. He told me, “You are the only person who has knocked that wall down. You gave me so much stick, I ended up going after one and getting caught. You’re the only person who’s ever got under my skin”.’

What did Reeve say? There is relish in his voice — ‘How did this guy ever play for India? He must have had family on the selection committee. He hasn’t got any shots. He just blocks it.

‘I went on and on. And he got out. Things like that made me very disliked. But I wasn’t out there to make friends. We were there to win matches.’

And win he did. In 1994 — the summer of Brian Lara’s 501 — Reeve guided Warwickshire to the Championship, the Sunday League and the Benson & Hedges Cup, before losing a vital toss and the final of the NatWest Trophy to Worcestershire. 

Reeve calls it the ‘most successful season there’s ever been in the history of county cricket’. In 1995, Warwickshire successfully defended the Championship and won the NatWest.

They were heady years. At Edgbaston, the club shop is called Store ’94. 

A giant photo in the window shows Reeve — virile and happy — being carried shoulder high by fans.

Above all, Warwickshire played in their captain’s image. They were innovative and fearless, using the reverse sweep at a time when English cricket was still recovering from Mike Gatting’s dismissal in the 1987 World Cup final and packing their side with all-rounders. Other counties resented them, especially Lancashire.

Crucially, Reeve encouraged an open dressing room in which prince and pauper alike had a voice. It was a democracy that stemmed from his time at Sussex, where Imran Khan, now Pakistan’s prime minister, was sniffy about his ability.

In a game at Edgbaston, Imran told captain John Barclay that Reeve

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