The Ipswich chairman David Sheepshanks’ favourite description of him is “Scargill-esque” while a Radio 5 listener labelled him “Rambo-esque”. How his members emerge in the long term from this battle will determine whether he comes to be regarded with the distinction of one of his predecessors, Jimmy Hill, in 1961. Or whether he has merely been a protagonist in an episode which can only be described as grotesque. Exit LinesWhen someone as mild-mannered as Paul Scholes starts to question someone like Fergie, you know there is something wrong Tommy Docherty… Roberto Carlos insisted on offending me, my family, my mother I couldn’t stand it any more and I spit on him He deserved to have his face broken Paraguayan keeper Jose Luis Chilavert.. Me and Frank will always be friends.

Lennox Lewis after parting with manager Maloney, who threatened to sue… Now the TV revenue boom is coming to an end, increases in players’ wages will have to stop if clubs aren’t to go bust Greg Dyke. That Ramps, he’s a funny one. Shane Warne said that last summer, but a few down the years have echoed the thought with a shake of the head. You wonder what the Australians would have made of Mark Ramprakash had he been born and raised in Wagga Wagga, NSW, not Bushey, Herts. He has an Aussie sense of ambition, an Aussie’s bluntness, but it is certain that the Australians would have made up their minds about him one way or another long before the age of 32 Give him a trot in the side, mate, let’s see what he can do Right, next please

That Ramps, he’s a funny one. Right, next please.
So here we are once again pushing open the swing doors of the last-chance saloon, except that Ramprakash himself has been such a consistent stool-dweller he no longer worries about what lies beyond closing time.

On Tuesday, he will travel to India for a three-Test series, a batsman with credit on his tab for once after a century against Australia at The Oval in the final Test of last summer. He has already shifted his mind into touring mode, organising bats, pads, box, biscuits, Tetley tea bags, the essential survival kit for one of the most demanding and yet prized of cricketing tours. He will slip a few crime novels into his luggage – Iain Banks, Patricia Cornwell, stuff to pass the time of day in airport lounges and hotel rooms – and is learning to use the computer to ease communication with his wife, Vandanna, and four-year-old daughter.During the pre-tour debate about security, Ramprakash listened to the words of the British High Commissioner in Delhi and decided that if 700 diplomatic staff could work and live in India without undue alarm, he could go and pursue his profession for a few weeks. His last tour there, with the A team in 1994, was a resounding success.

England played attractive, winning cricket under the leadership of Alan Wells and a team which included Ramprakash as vice-captain and Dominic Cork, another with a reputation for boat-rocking, developed a genuine and robust sense of community. Ramprakash muses on which came first, the winning or the team spirit. As captain of Middlesex, he could generate neither consistently and fell out with John Buchanan, the Australian coach, over the location of the fault line. Buchanan wanted a team song; Ramprakash thought it more important that his bowlers bowl straight and his batsmen play straight.You sense Ramprakash might not be the type for team songs “I can adapt,” he says “At Middlesex, we didn’t have a team song, at Surrey we do. Adam Hollioake gives us a team talk in the dressing-room and we have a huddle. Nasser [Hussain] tends to give us a chat and a huddle on the field, which works well.