Mark Davies is a selected member of the WAT England A 2005 team.

Mark Davies is a selected member of the WAT England A 2005 team. He also won our vote for 2005's best bowler in County Cricket. The first to help us out were the people at Durham CCC, especially Yvette Thompson who put me in touch with their swing bowling sensation, Mark Davies. Please note that the interview was held by telephone, and Mark was kind enough to talk to us despite being in the middle of his Christmas shopping! Also, due to the nature of the interview, the answers to the questions as shown are not direct quotes. I hope you enjoy reading what he has to say, and I would like to hear your comments on his opinions so that we can send something back to him from the membership:

Q1. How were you first introduced to cricket, and what about the game got you hooked?

Mark Davies: I was introduced to cricket at a very young age. Firstly through my Uncle who was on the playing staff at Yorkshire. Although he didn't play first class cricket, he played a lot of 2nd XI cricket. Also through my granddad and uncle's love for the game helped me to develop my own love for the game. Since then, my brothers have also played a lot of cricket and my other Uncle has also played. Really, cricket has a strong background in my family

Q2. What hobbies/sports do you get up to when not playing or training for cricket?

Mark: Honestly, its quite difficult to do anything outside of cricket during the summer. When its the off season, I like to spend most of my time with the family. A lot of this time I spend watching my younger brother play football and I like to play a bit of golf. My brother Andrew is contracted with Middlesbrough, and has played 15 Premiership games for them, he's currently on loan at Derby and has been on loan at QPR in the past.

Q3. Who are your favourite cricketers of all time, and which cricketer do you think influenced your own style the most?

Mark: Glenn McGrath. I've always looked up to and idolised him. I like his playing style, his style of bowling and I like to follow his playing methods

Q4. What advice would you give to youngsters to encourage them to take up cricket?

Mark: I get asked this question a lot at functions. Its quite hard to answer, but the main thing is that the youngsters have to enjoy it. Enjoyment should come first

Q5. What has been your own personal highlight from your career so far?

Mark: My real personal highlight was the season before the one just gone, the 2004 season. This is because it was the first season that I took 50 wickets. That’s a goal that every bowler sets themselves when they first set out and making that target was fantastic for me.

Q6. Do you rely on seam movement to get the majority of your wickets? What other ways does you look to take wickets? Do you think that England place too much emphasis on requiring pace from their bowlers?

Mark: I mainly rely on away-swing bowling to take wickets. After this, movement off the seam comes second. To be honest, the main way I take wickets is by grinding the batsman down. I give the batsman no room to play their own shots through a reliance on accuracy which forces them to make mistakes.

I don't really think that England are obsessed with pace, but that extra yard of pace is vital at the top level. I've been working hard on gaining that extra yard of pace which will hopefully get me more into contention in the international frame. Its important to remember that pace is not the be all and end all.

Q7. What County grounds favour your bowling?

Mark: Obviously Durham with the record I've had there in recent times. Apart from that, I always seem to enjoy bowling at Trent Bridge. Trent Bridge is usually a quite a flat pitch and its difficult to take wickets there, but I've been successful by exploiting the swing rather than seam movement

Q8. Are you aiming to be an all-rounder or just a bowler who can bat a bit?

Mark: Gone are the days of allowing number 11s to be poor batsmen. Look at Liam Plunkett who’s just scored a 50 for England! Our coach at Durham, Martyn Moxon is getting on the bowlers' case to get us to work as hard on the batting as the bowling! To us, getting the ability at batting can be as important as the bowling. This reminds me that scoring my 1st first class 50 last year was very enjoyable!

Q9. You played for England Under 19s against Sri Lanka Under 19s in 2000. Was that an important series in terms of your cricket development?

Mark: It was excellent for me to get the recognition of gaining a call-up to the England Under 19s. It was very important to me at the time as I’d already set myself the target of playing for them as a step to securing a professional contract with Durham. The Sri Lankan style is very different and thus playing against players with a completely different style to those you'd face in county cricket was a real benefit. And it was also very enjoyable when we won the series 3-0!

Q10. Who are the best players you have played with and against?

Mark: The best player I've played with has to be Mike Hussey who was one of the overseas players last year at Durham. Mike has a very different view on cricket; and all the lads learnt a lot from him in just one season. In particular, he has a professional outlook! As for who the best player I've played against is, that's a lot tougher as there are so many great players in county cricket these days. Andrew Flintoff is very tough to play against as he’s very dominating and takes the attack to you.