On The Move: Stuart Broad

He had not reached his first birthday when Chris helped retain the Ashes in 1986-7 but he remembers it vividly: “A video of the series was on repeat in my dad’s house for the first 10 years of my life,” he says.

Stuart is expecting flak from the Aussies — last summer the South Africa team called him “Baywatch”, on account of his youthful looks and blond hair — but says he is more than capable of dealing with it: “I’m the sort of bloke who will stand up and look someone in the eye if they’re having a go at me,” he says.

“There’s going to be a lot of pride and passion out there, and I’m sure there’ll be some scenes, but as long as it doesn’t get out of hand then everyone will be happy. It’s going to be close again because we’re pretty evenly matched.”

Broad started out as an opening batsman — like his father — but after a late growth spurt at 17 saw him shoot up from about 5ft 7in to 6ft 6in in a year, he decided to switch to fast bowling. One of the first things that had to go was his tiny Vauxhall Corsa: “I think my career would have been over if I’d stuck with it,” he says, half laughing, half grimacing. “I could barely fit my knees under the steering wheel. My back was in bits. I couldn’t afford to change it, so we went to a garage and my mum asked if they could move the brackets on the seat further back. In the end the club sorted me out with a sponsor’s car, a plush — well, it seemed plush at the time — Saab 9-3 saloon. It was a relief to turn up and not feel too stiff to open the bowling.”

He now drives a VW Touareg, as part of a partnership deal through the England and Wales Cricket Board. Cricketers rack up the mileage, and he has driven 8,000 miles since returning from the West Indies in April.

Another perk of the VW deal is the occasional track day, most recently at Silverstone. “I did an off-road session in the morning then 10 laps in a Formula Ford in the afternoon. It was so cramped I had to take my shoes off to get in it,” he says. “I thought I’d have loads of tuition but they just said, ‘That’s the clutch, that’s the brake and that’s the accelerator,’ and off I went. It was raining but it was brilliant, and it gave me a real insight into the skill it takes to be a top driver because every time I touched the brake I span off.”

The garage at Broad’s new home in Nottinghamshire has space for three cars but there’s only the VW to fill it. At such an early stage in his career, eyebrows might be raised if he plugged the gap with a Ferrari F430 Spider, as favoured by colleague Kevin Pietersen.

“He took me for a spin in it but because we were in London, I don’t think we got out of second,” says Broad. “At the end of last season, VW lent me an R32, which is a pretty powerful car for a hatchback. Audi lent me an R8 for a month too. That was fantastic but I struggled to fit my kit in it. My dream car would be an Aston Martin DB9 but I can’t see myself owning one for a while.”

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