A conflict developed between cricketing fantasies and ambitions to be a collar-and-tie accountant

 Mark Alleynedoes not conform to any of cricket"s stereotypes. It is no easier to categorise him than it is to explain the formula with which Gloucestershire- the team he leads with a rare measure of mutual affection - have shrugged off their innate regional self-effacement to monopolise the one-day game. He doesn"t look like a sporting warrior. The eyes are benevolent and seem incapable of malice or fiery competitive aggression. His demeanour has always been rather like that of a chorister-surplice freshly-ironed, face transparently good-natured. He became known as Boo-Boo in the days when he and Syd Lawrence hung around together at Gloucester. Lawrence, big and beefy, was nicknamed, Yogi bear while Mark, smaller and younger, took after his sidekick. Yet such an air of Sunday innocence should not be allowed to confuse us.

At present he is captaining England A in the West Indies. He did well enough in the job last winter in Bangladesh and New Zealand to be reappointed. He combines a sharp flexible cricket brain with a pleasant, unostentatious manner off the field. Alleyne is an experienced tour campaigner already. He went to Sri Lanka with England young Cricketers in 1986-87 and Australia the following year. Later he travelled with the England one-day side to Australia again, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Pakistan. But a place in the Test team has eluded him so far. Perhaps now the chance has gone forever.

It will need consistent, maybe, exceptional, statistics to bring Alleyne back into contention as a Test player. He shrugs with a diplomatic eloquence that suggests he knows it is up to him. His inherent optimism is a positive quality - it has often served him well as a match unfolds - and it is not likely to desert him yet. In any case, being part of England"s one-day squad, as well as skippering A tours, can"t be bad for a once-ingenuous lad of 15 who came to Britain with no obvious aspirations to become a county cricketer.

His story is inspiring in its way. He was the first of the 16 graduates from Haringey Cricket College to find a place in the first-class game. When he joined Gloucestershire, he decided to give up wicketkeeping - which he did with Russell around, there was no scope for him for years to come. He took up seam bowling instead. This engaging stealth is character of his achievements.

Although Alleyne was born in Tottenham, his family roots are solidly Barbadian. His parents moved back to Bridgetown when he was a boy. ( No distance from the Kensington Oval. I could nip over the wall to watch, he recalls.) While he remained besotted with the footballers who played at White Hart Lane, he and his older brother, Stephen, became imbued with the island"s pervasive cricket culture.

 Alleyne"s parents sent him back to England to complete his schooling and to prepare him for a decent career. Something like accountancy. Maths was his best subject and he could tot up the figures on The Oval scoreboard quicker than his chums. His eager, boyish promise as a cricketer had been spotted too. He was good enough to be invited to go to Haringey, which was becoming a haven for young black players.

 Stephen Alleyne was already at Haringey and went on to captain the college. Mark had always wanted to be a wicketkeeper, just like his father. He was still at school, so was not a full member of the college, but the unwavering enthusiasm of its director, Reg Scarlett, was infectious. Suddenly, if vaguely at first, a conflict was developing between youthful fantasies of a career as a cricketer and genuine, no-nonsense ambitions to be trained as an accountant, collar-and-tie, none-to-five.

In Bridgetown, Euclid, his father, managed a supermarket and Hyacinth Cordeilla, his mother, was adept at her bookkeeping job. They owned their home and, by local standards, they were reasonably well-off. Having sent their boys back to England for higher education, it had never occurred to them that they might rather play cricket for a living. There was no local authority grant for learning cricket and it wasn"t easy for them to help finance their sons, but they did manage to send money over. The boys" guardians kept an eye on them, but they were no trouble. That was a tribute to our parents, who"d been strict in the old-fashioned West Indian tradition, says Alleyne.

Returning to London, he developed a mild complex about his Barbadian accent. I suppose I was a bit self conscious about it, He recalls. Reg Scarlett helped. He could see Alleyne was shy as he tried to grow up in an unfamiliar city, but he approved of his equable disposition and his willingness to learn and absorb. With Scarlett"s encouragement, Alleyne"s confidence increased.

Family ties; Mark"s wedding to Louise top, and below with his brother Stephen

Down in Bristol, John Shepherd had arrived from Kent - first to play but increasingly to coach. He was also from Barbados. Stephen Alleyne came to Gloucestershire to play some trial games with the 2nd XI and, when Shepherd spoke to Scarlett about the young boy"s promise, Scarlett replied: Yes, he"s good. But perhaps you should also take a look at his younger brother. He"s bit special.

At that time, Somerset were showing an interest in Mark, who"d done well for the college in two one-day games against them. They especially liked his glovework and had noticed that he was making some attractive runs. They offered him a one-year contact. Gloucestershire were prepared to make it three years. Mark accepted, while Stephen Alleyne received no offers at all. The official word from Gloucestershire was that they couldn"t afford to take on both of them. Mark says: I"d always looked on Stephen as the better player. Yet I was so elated at the chance to become a county cricketer that I didn"t pause to think of Stephen"s frustrations. The two boys were never overtly competitive and they remain close. Stephen was the best man at Mark"s wedding in 1999.

Mark made his debut for Gloucestershire against Kent at the old Wagon Works ground in Gloucester. He was 18 and a diffident façade didn"t prevent a theatrical flourish from him when he scored the winning run. His first hundred came in only his eighth match. There was nothing wrong with the temperament. He was 99 not out overnight against Sussex at Bristol. When he added the single the next morning, he became Gloucestershire"s youngest century-maker. That was 1986. Four years later, he was the youngest to reach a double-century, scoring 256 in 439 minutes at Northampton.

In the years that followed, Cheltenham became his chosen arena. The track was fast and bouncy. The outfield shimmered as he cut and drove down the slope. During the 1955 Cheltenham Festival, he found himself captaining for the first time in the Championship. He scored 77 and 141, and smiled sheepishly as the big crowd applauded him off the field. Extravagant emotion has never been part of his repertoire, but he might well have been presented with the Freedom of the Cotswolds.

He is no stranger to frustration, of course, even at Cheltenham. When Worcestershire were the visitors in 1999, Alleyne failed to appreciate that the pitch was not as quick and bouncy as usual. When he won the toss, he put the visitors in - and apologised to his team-mates after only one session: I had this gut feeling, lads, he said. Worcestershire eventually declared at 591 for 7.

During disappointing runs with the bat, he became a borderline member of the county team. But, on a higher stage, he made what he feels were big strides for myself in South Africa when he won the Man of the Match award in East London last February. It led him to believe that he was due for higher things in Zimbabwe. I thought Zimbabwe were there for the taking, and I had a reasonable chance to enhance my career. No such luck. That has been the high-water mark of his international cricket to date.

 Alleyne is not a gregarious figure. He doesn"t always join the others for a drink or a night out. On some away trips, he retires early, perhaps giving the impression that he needs his own company. In his hotel room, he reflects on the game and works out what needs to be done.

If this reflects a faintly anti-social attitude, his team-mates accept it because, basically, they all like him. Off-spinner Martyn Ball is a long-standing friend. They travelled to matches together, even bought a house together. He"s someone who hates confrontation, says Ball. If he leaves someone out, we accepted that it isn"t personal. Ball also reveals that Alleyne is surprisingly clumsy. We change next to each other and you can be sure he"ll spill the cup of tea, he says.

When Alleyne took over from Jack Russell permanently, the question was whether he"d be assertive and strong enough to be able to draw the demarcation line that divides good humour from insubordination in the dressing room. Alleyne harboured few doubts: I love responsibility. I feel I have a real instinct for the game - all the things I do are for the right reason. Although not a great talker himself, he warns to collective technical discussion and values debriefing sessions at close of play.

Understandably, in his first season as captain in 1997, Alleyne occasionally appeared inhibited. But before long, he"d learned to seek the counsel of experienced colleagues like Russell, Mike Smith and Kim Barnett. And if there was a tendency to introversion, John Bracewell, the county coach, balanced things out. The personalities dovetailed productively. Smith says: The thing about Mark is that he has this ability to stay cool.

 Alleyne understands that all captains have tricky moments. His worst one came when he backed Gloucestershire"s decision to end Courtney Walsh"s contract at the end of the 1998 season. The two had spent years together on the team and were friends. Walsh may have expected Alleyne to speak up for him: Communications weren"t good over the issue, but I think the decision was the right one and I don"t feel guilty. I"ve seen Courtney since and I suspect he may hold it against me. Things are not as they used to be and I can accept that, he says. Alleyne is a loyal ally by nature and he could have done without the whispers of disloyalty from the Walsh camp.

 Bracewell confirms this: He integrates well - with the young and the old. He has no favourites and he"s extremely loyal. It"s actually difficult to get out of Mark"s team, which makes it difficult to earn the right to get in. He"s a doer, ready to get out on the factory floor. The only time a captain is truly tested is in one-day games and Mark is, by any standards, an outstanding one-day captain. For several years before recognition came, he was the country"s number-one all-rounder. He was desperately unlucky not to be called up by England.

 Bill Athey says: If you bumped into Boo-Boo after a game, you"d never know whether his side had won or lost, whether he"d scored a hundred or got out for a duck. But if that"s a strength, it can also be a weakness in the rough-and-ready business of competitive cricket. People are apt to say I"m laid-back, but I"m not sure that"s a compliment, says Alleyne. It sounds as if I don"t care and, if that"s the case, perhaps I should work at changing my image.

In fact, he"s been doing just that, systematically and discreetly, as some opposing captains have already discovered to their cost. The new message is: don"t be deceived. Alleyne is toughening up, although his fans in Bristol hope this won"t be at the expense of his quiet amiability. He showed that he can handle pressure in 1999, his benefit year. His father was killed in a car crash and Gloucestershire"s remarkable run of four successive wins in Lord"s one-day finals began. He also got married to Louise, who takes no more than a nominal interest in cricket. They don"t talk about it much at home and Louise is introducing him to the garden. The bit he likes most is sitting in it. That"s my thinking time, he says.

There is plenty for him to wonder at. He has started a promising business career among the sponsors at Bristol, but the best surprise is that Mark Alleyne has found himself part of our cricketing history: the first black Englishman to captain an England cricket team. He"s proud of his background and, because he"s untouched by the jagged edge of political controversy, the statement he makes is all the more effective and uplifting.

As Reg Scarlett said: I"d like to think he was an inspiration for the boys who came up after him at Haringey.

The rise and fall of Haringey Cricket College

Students - about 20 a year - took a complete two-year education and training package, giving them qualifications in leisure and sports management, business and cricket coaching. The college had a packed fixture programme, with games against the countie"s second XIs, Pakistan Under-23s and the Soweto townships.

 Rollins, who attended winter nets at the college for five years, says it had a brilliant influence on his career. Because he signed for Essex at 17, Rollins was not a fully-fledged pupil, though his brother Adrian, now with Northants, studied there full-time - along with Alleyne.

The college"s head coach, Reg Scarlett- who is now the West Indies Board"s director of coaching - also nurtured the talents of Essex bowler Ricky Anderson and England A wicketkeeper Keith Piper, who has a 2001 benefit with Warwickshire. Piper was London Young Cricketer of the Year in 1989.

 Scarlett said then: Asian and Afro-Caribbean youngsters see cricket as their game, but living in the inner-city they may never get the chance to prove it.

The college enjoyed enormous success in the 1980s, becoming the London Cricket College in 1992, when it was financed principally by Haringey council. By the mid-1990s, however, the college missed out on a £45,000 European Union grant and cuts in local government spending meant it was forced to close in 1996.

 Robert Rollins, now aged 27, bats for Cambridgeshire in the Minor Counties championship after a knee injury forced him to quit at Essex. He says. Some talented lads were overlooked because they didn"t go to the right schools, but Haringey College gave them a level playing field. They learned to play as a team against the big boys. Then they would be spotted by one of the counties who would give them a trial, and by that stage they would have developed their skills and wouldn"t feel so inhibited.

  Reg Scarlett was already doing some work for the West Indies so I wasn"t surprised when he went full-time. He"s an excellent coach - very good at working on an individual"s strengths and weaknesses.

The need for this kind of education has never gone away. In October 1999 the Lord"s Taverners and the Cricket Foundation launched the £120,000 Inner-city Cricket Project for three years at sites in Bristol, Newcastle, Nottingham and the London boroughs of Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest.

At the launch Nasser Hussain warned that inner-city sport was urgently in need of funding. He said: Cricket in schools is not dying from lack of enthusiasm but from lack of money.

Meanwhile, Rollins lives in hope; I"m sure something like the college can be resurrected with lottery money, he says.

Huw Turbervill

 Mark Waynew Alleyne

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