An email conversation with Graham Onions: 'I have to play well, then England will call'

If you had the chance, would you take part in the Indian Premier League next year? Probably not, no. It might be quite hard to turn down with the amount of money that might be thrown at me, but I think I owe a lot to England and obviously to Durham. Anyway, I think we play enough cricket now and I still want to play the whole county season.

Is money not that important to you, then? No, not really. I genuinely love to play cricket. I enjoy it. And if I got paid just £10,000 a year I would still play for Durham. I just love playing the game and I think the most important thing is playing in a team environment, where you are with your friends all the time. And of course if I went to play in the IPL I would not be in an actual team.

Is the IPL good for the game? It will be good for the spectators, because there are some very good cricketers out there and having them all together in the same competition I think is absolutely brilliant. I would love to go and watch it. But I think Test cricket is definitely the best and ultimate form of the game. For anybody who plays, that is where you want to be.

Should the ECB look again at the English season and perhaps accommodate the IPL? No, I don't think so. I don't think England have to change the county season. There is no need. There is nothing wrong with our season. It is a hard one but I think it is probably one of the best domestic seasons in the world. It is producing excellent cricketers, there are lots of good young cricketers coming through. I see no reason to change the season to suit other people.

Twenty20 has taken off around the world. Is there any room for the 50-over and 40-over games in this country? Twenty20 cricket has taken off. Unfortunately, I have always been on the losing side when I have played it for Durham. We have not actually performed very well, which is a massive disappointment, but it is something that we practise, that we still train hard for, as we do for every form of the game. But I see no reason why we need to play more Twenty20 while playing less of the other two forms of the one-day game. The Twenty20 is a good competition, although it is very hard for me, being a fast bowler. It can be very hard and sometimes you have to hold your hand up and say it is not quite your day. But there is no reason why we need to scrap any other competitions to make room for more Twenty20.

What is on your MP3 player? Among others I have The Jam, but I listen to pretty much everything. I usually put the MP3 player on shuffle. I like a little bit of R Kelly, but it's a bit of a mixture really.

Do you play a musical instrument? I used to play the violin at school. I quite enjoyed it but it was very hard because fitting in violin practice with sport was quite difficult.

What book is on your bedside table? It is a book called Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts, a convicted Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escaped from prison, got an Indian passport and then travelled around India, living in the shanty towns. I think he gets jailed again, but I haven't finished the book. It's quite thick and it's going to take quite a while to get through.

How have you spent the winter? Before Christmas I went on the development programme. We spent two weeks at Loughborough. Then I spent four weeks in India again. After Christmas it was the A tour, when we played in the Duleep Trophy in India. And I just got back, the day before I was due to play for MCC against Sussex, from Johannesburg. In all I have spent 13 weeks away from home this winter, purely playing cricket, which has been really good. I have learnt a lot, talked to a lot of different people and gained a lot of experience.

Are Durham now a force to be reckoned with in the County Championship? Without a doubt. We've got an extremely good squad and two very good overseas signings in Neil McKenzie and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. There is Steve Harmison, Liam Plunkett and myself. We have a really good, experienced bunch, but we also have some extremely good, up-and-coming youngsters. It was great to have a good season last year, when we finished second in the Championship, especially after six really hard years.

After the success in the Friends Provident Trophy last summer, are Durham going to turn pothunting into a serious hobby? There is more self-confidence and self-belief in the squad now. The supporters expect a lot, which puts a little bit of pressure on, but it is great to be involved with such a squad and we definitely want to win more trophies.

What are your ambitions for Durham and for yourself this season? I'd like Durham to win the County Championship and another one-day competition. I am at a stage now where I am trying to concentrate on playing for England, because I have aspirations to take my game to the next level. The development programme before Christmas went very well, I bowled very nicely. Then the A tour went very well, and being leading wicket-taker was great. I also worked hard on my batting. But I am not letting myself think, "I've got a great chance of playing for England". What I have to do is play well for Durham then, hopefully, that England call will come.

Do you have any weird food fads? I am a bit of a picky eater. I eat pretty much everything, but I just like things to be cooked well, I don't like rare steaks, although I don't mind medium steaks. If I see any gristle I cut it off. When I was a child my parents used to make me eat the things I didn't like, especially the greens, before they would let me have a bit of jam roly-poly. I do eat my greens now.

Can we look forward to seeing a Test scorecard featuring c Mustard b Onions? Yeah, I have been asked this quite a lot. The answer is, I don't see any reason why not. It has appeared plenty of times on Durham scorecards. It is up to Philip [Mustard] if he wants to progress in the game. He will have his opportunities.

Do you get fed up with the Mustard-Onions funny name thing? Not really. I have had it all my life, but I am kind of proud of my name. I don't know what its origins are. It is unusual. I have been given nicknames, the most recent, printable ones being "Wills" and "Bunny", but mostly people just call me Onions. In fact the last person to call me Graham must have been the vicar at my christening.

What is the craziest thing you have ever done? I was going to do a bungee jump in South Africa. It's the highest one in the world, in Port Elizabeth. I got across to the launch site in a cage – well, I crawled across – but I didn't attempt a jump, because I am not a big fan of heights.

Attachment

*Born Gateshead, 9 September 1982

*County Durham

*Height 6ft 2in Weight 11st 2lb

*Bowls Right-arm medium-fast, Bats right-hand bat

*Durham debut 2004

*50 wkts in season 1 (2006)

*Five appearances for England Lions since debut in Bangladesh in February 2007

*Other sporting interests Football (Newcastle United)

Interesting? Click here to explore further