Jack Russell is one of the most colourful and eccentric characters in international cricket. Since his wicket-keeping debut for England in 1988, Russell has taken well over 100 Test catches, including a world record eleven catches in a match, and has figured in a series of heroic rearguard actions with the bat, feats that have endeared him to cricket followers the world over.

But Russell is no ordinary cricketer. Thanks to his idiosyncratic batting style at the crease, his peculiar diet of twenty cups of tea a day and mountains of baked beans, and his love of drawing and painting, he has earned the reputation for being an oddity in the world of modern day cricket.

Reservedly a complex character, driven by forces even he cannot totally comprehend, Russell will reveal how he was inspired to take up the wicket-keeping gloves for his county Gloucestershire and to battle for his place behind the stumps for England.

Through all this he reflects on how his career was interrupted by personal tragedy - the death of his brother in 1986 and the depression he suffered at the end of the West Indies tour in 1994 - and recalls contrasting emotions of starting out in a struggling England side, followed almost eight years later by the elation over his match-saving performance in the Johannesburg Test during the winter tour of South Africa. He will also talk frankly about...