In fact all of us just try to keep it within the framework of the rules.”These, however, are rules that can be bent. When you hit somebody you go to pieces.’ It’s true, though hitting a batsman on the body doesn’t really affect me, as I know he’s just going to be a bit sore in the morning. Just after I started out for Trinidad, a fellow ducked into a short ball during a club game. He got cut over the eye and blood was spurting everywhere.”It may be hard to believe but I’ve never been the same since, and my team-mates always take the mickey and say, ‘Oh, you can’t bowl fast, you don’t have the heart. We didn’t try to kill anybody, we just used the pitch to the best of our abilities.”True to his deep commitment to Christianity, Bishop admits a certain squeamishness at hurting batsmen “The last thing I want to do is maim anyone or see blood It’s happened a few times, and it’s not a good feeling. Already, Richard Illingworth is out of the next Test with a broken knuckle, although Jason Gallian has made a swift recovery from a cracked finger.Bishop refutes such a suggestion “A lot of people get the wrong impression.

We don’t try to batter players, we just utilise what is put in front of us. Obviously, if you leave grass on the middle of the pitch that’s going to be the most beneficial place for us to bowl. You’re just going to have to try and run in and put in some more effort.’ So I had to try to bowl a couple of yards quicker.”To those accustomed to being on the receiving end of such calculating ruthlessness, the ensuing barrage of short balls would have been seen as part of a wider-reaching attempt to break England’s spirit and perhaps the odd bone for the rest of the series. But the Edgbaston pitch was hard and dry with hardly any grass on a full length. Actually it was Brian [Lara] who sidled up to me after my first two overs of the match and said: ‘Look, Bish, it’s not swinging, but there is a bit of grass there.

“I thought I’d try to get most of my wickets this summer with the outswinger. On the evidence of last Saturday, he is already there, a Test ahead of schedule.”I never really planned to charge in, having suffered the injuries I’ve had,” Bishop confided. You see, he’s much more aggressive.”That admission will certainly be news to Smith, whose heavy haematoma count came courtesy of Bishop’s non-stop onslaught to his throat and rib-cage. Earlier in the summer, Michael Holding predicted that if all went well for Bishop with his new action he would be back close to full pace by the Fourth Test. That was fast and bounced steeply from a full length.”It was, though, the quickest strip I’ve ever played on in England, and when the first delivery of the match flew over both Atherton’s and the keeper’s heads, I thought, ‘Hey, I’d like to get a bowl on this.’ Actually I was due to open the bowling, but Richie [Richardson], having seen that ball take off, thought of the huge effect it would have on the opposition So he brought Courtney on instead. “I thought it was a fair pitch once the shine came off the ball. Certainly, I’d rather have batted on it than the one we played Australia on at Perth in 1993.

But don’t get me wrong, I still relish fast bowling; it really gets the adrenalin going, and at this level, that’s what this game is all about.”Bishop, who ended with four second-innings wickets, disagreed. There was one over where I ducked five balls out of six and I thought Bishop would have had a much better chance of getting me out if he pitched it up. As had happened to Graham Gooch against Patterson and Marshall on the terror track at Sabina Park in 1986, Smith felt there was a chance he might get hit on the head without being able to do much about it.”It certainly crossed my mind, and while I have no complaints about the bouncer rule whatsoever, I did feel that on occasion they were trying to hit me rather than get me out. But at the end of the day, what’s a bruise?”Battered by Bishop, sniped at by Courtney Walsh; Smith is never one to shirk a red-blooded challenge, and though he is well-endowed with testosterone, this is not just reckless macho talk. After all, he did wear a visor with his helmet, only the second time he has done so. “Normally, I try to get out of the way when it’s that quick, but the variable bounce meant I kept getting hit.