Swann recalls how a bloody nose from Darren Gough marked his debut as an England cricket tourist

After a late update to include his temporary elevation to England captain (for last month’s two Twenty20 matches against West Indies), cricketer Graeme Swann’s autobiography hits the bookstands this week.


As a foretaste, readers of The Sun can learn in today’s edition how the Nottinghamshire off-spinner’s first England tour included a painful late-night collision with teammate Darren Gough’s fist.

The incident occurred during a difficult period in the player’s career.  Picked to tour South Africa as a 20-year-old, Swann failed the essential requirement for a happy trip by falling out of favour with coach Duncan Fletcher and subsequently suffered homesickness.

He was eager to be a popular tourist in a social sense but his antics did not impress all of his colleagues, Gough apparently among them as their encounter in the toilets of a Johannesburg hotel would seem to suggest.

At 32, Swann is now an established star of the England team and is twice an Ashes winner.  But he had to endure a seven-year wait between his first appearance for England and his second and The Brakes Are Off reveals the true nature of his relationship with Fletcher.

Swann wrote the book with the help of journalist Richard Gibson, who will be hoping for another best seller after the success of Start the Car, his collaboration with TV commentator David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd.

Gibson is currently working with England fast bowler James Anderson on another cricket autobiography.

Graeme Swann: The Breaks are Off - My Autobiography is published by Hodder and Stoughton.  Buy direct from Amazon.



Download the Kindle version


Read today’s extract in The Sun


Buy Start the Car: The World According to Bumble in paperback or Kindle edition


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