Read back for keeps

Chris Read: rated by Rodney Marsh as one of the best young players he has seen

Chris Read's hands look small and delicate. When he sits he rests them on the table, one protecting the other. He knows safe hands are mandatory and is aware of the dangers of waiting for a chance, whether it is a caught-behind or a call from David Graveney. "It's possible you won't get an [England] opportunity for three or four years, so when you get one you've got to take it," he says.

Read has a beaming smile and since the start of the season there has been a lot to be happy about. Alec Stewart challenged the selectors to choose a young keeper for England's ODIs and Read was suddenly in a two-man tussle with James Foster. Then the ECB Academy director Rod Marsh, who rates Read as one of the best young players he has seen, was named as the fourth England selector. "It goes without saying that it was good news," Read says. "But it's up to me to prove I'm good enough to be given a chance and to prove I can play at that level."

At the end of May Read's smile briefly disappeared when he broke a thumb playing for Nottinghamshire in a National League game against Sussex at Horsham. International wicketkeeping dreams begin and end with shattered bones. Ian Healy has Ian Botham to thank for launching his record-breaking 119-Test career. Botham broke the finger of the Queensland incumbent Peter Anderson in 1987-88 and four first-class games later Healy was playing for Australia.

Standing up to the medium-pacer Gareth Clough, Read was struck on his right thumb and suffered a hairline fracture, potentially a three-week injury. The selectors stuck to their guns and picked him in the one-day squad, with Foster on standby.

Read knows about big breaks. He was picked on an England A tour before playing a first-class game and when he moved from Gloucestershire, where he was stuck behind Jack Russell, to Nottinghamshire, Wayne Noon was injured early in the season. Read stepped up, was picked for a second England A tour and in 1999 made his Test debut at 20. It is difficult to talk to Read without looking back. He sits in the Horsham pavilion looking out at a portable practice net six days before suffering the injury. No one stops for autographs and only his county coach Mick Newell interrupts to leave a map to the hotel and a key to lock up the dressing room. He is not Alec Stewart.

Read has been forgotten for a long time but is honest about the past and realistic about the future. "Looking at my record, three Tests and five innings, to score 38 runs is not really good enough," he says.

The three Tests were against New Zealand but his eight dismissals on debut at Edgbaston were swiftly overshadowed by the footage of his embarrassing misjudgement of a Chris Cairns slower ball that bowled him at Lord's.

He still went to South Africa as cover for Stewart and was pleased with his returns in nine ODIs. "But I probably had my worst season after that. Since then I've been making improvements and my game has been on the up."

A winter at the Academy under Marsh put more polish on his glovework and after a National League century in the opening match against Northamptonshire he was under most microscopes as ODI replacements were canvassed following World Cup retirements. "Second time round it's a lot easier because I'm three or four years wiser," he says of the pressure. "The first time it was a bit of a shock and I wasn't quite prepared. Now I have experience and know what to expect."

Marsh and Read clicked in Adelaide. Read was impressed by Marsh's positive attitude and his work ethic. The feeling was mutual. "Rod said in his last season he didn't miss a chance and that's my aspiration," he says. "I remember missing two chances last season. There was a catch against Gloucestershire, diving low to my right and I couldn't get my hand underneath it, and I missed a stumping off MacGill that spun a mile."

Read's spin is that he does not want to be pigeon-holed as a limited-overs player and his wicketkeeping voice, slightly squeaky but very clear, would suit the longer game if only to annoy the batsmen with his constant chatter. He believes England's transition towards the 2007 World Cup is natural and it will be up to the new players to "get on with it and make the best of it". "Knight, Caddick, Stewart, Hussain, they are big names," he says, as if suddenly realising that they are all missing. "It gives guys opportunities. There are young guys all over the country who are desperate for a chance to perform." He now has a second one.