First Night: Darren Maddy - Disciple of the fresh approach

New boy leads long march to brighter tomorrow. By Stephen Brenkley

DARREN MADDY bounded in and grinned. He does this regularly because he has the sort of face and outlook from which frowns turn on their heel and run. He is the enthusiast's enthusiast, perpetually on the move, a bundle of activity, full of energy.

It was easy, of course, to draw this conclusion after his initial foray into the murky jungle of Test cricket, English Test cricket at that, from whose face the smile was wiped long ago. This was Thursday and it had been one of the good days, Maddy's bow in the big time. England had New Zealand on the rack, he had taken a slip catch of high quality. These are the times when bounding and grinning come easily to a curmudgeon.

But he was still bounding the next evening too when the positions of the sides had been reversed, the Kiwis were stretching the body of England to breaking point and his maiden innings as a Test opening batsman had been ended by a clever piece of bowling and a naive bit of batting. He talked as he had done after the first day of the Fourth Test at The Oval, of England's future, of being positive, of it all starting here and now. This was not the spin of a tired old hand, this was the optimistic belief of the tyro. "It's not for me to say," he said enthusiastically, "but I'd like to think we could play our natural game, play as we know we can and win like that."

If this was the talk of an innocent, a lad the behind of whose ears are still drowning in terms of how Test matches are won, it was still lovely to hear. He sounded - and he was utterly convincing - that he was enjoying it all and that is not an accusation that has been levelled at too many England players recently.

Maddy, 25, was one of the two new caps in the England side for the final, decisive Test of another long, horrid summer. He has been hanging around waiting for the call for some time. Two winters ago he appeared to have made the breakthrough when he had a splendid tour with the A team to Kenya and Sri Lanka. At Leicestershire he had been nurtured carefully by the wily Jack Birkenshaw and on that trip he came under the tutelage of Graham Gooch.

Now Gooch's grin may not be as automatic as Maddy's, nor his movements as swift but he knows about playing long innings. He impressed on his charge the need to build, that not every day would be the batsman's day and that it should not be lightly thrown away when it came along. Maddy came back to the English season of 1998, had an appropriately selection- barging start and was called, maybe a touch surprisingly, into the squad for the limited-over international series. So they were not saving him for the Tests then.

He played twice, batted once and returned to Grace Road, there to continue performing before small crowds ("sometimes there's just a dog there without the man," he remarked, commenting on the throng at The Oval) and visiting the gym. He is gym crazy by his own happy admission. The words "work out", even if placed in front of the phrase "What is the sum of x + y?" in an algebra lesson, would probably have him doing 1,000 sit-ups before he reached the conundrum.

Then his form disintegrated. Rejection seemed to have an adverse effect. But he went on another A tour and began this summer with slate clean. Maddy at last caught the selectorial eye again for this last home Test of the millennium, partly because of the selectors' decision that something had to give, partly because he has an average of 50 - "I've been in good form for most of the season. I've usually got a start."

And so to The Oval and England and the old sweats (who not so long ago, let us not forget, were themselves bright-eyed young things, if not quite as bushy-tailed as Maddy). Some of the rumours emanating from the camp have suggested that newcomers have been given a hard time. Two of the Test debutants earlier this summer, Chris Read and Aftab Habib, were said by the former coach David Lloyd to have been "traumatised" by their experience.

Given that, Maddy must, at the least, have been given the cold shoulder on passing through the portals, probably with an extra stare for the smile. "I was made very welcome. People couldn't have been more helpful and nobody has been aloof at all," he said as though the England dressing-room was, in fact, a combination of the Salvation Army and a glee club. "I didn't feel at all nervous going out on to the field. I have always wanted to play big cricket and, whether it was my experiences last year, I felt I knew what to expect. I'm much more mature now, ready for it. This is a new England. We're going forward and I want to be part of it."

Steady, Darren, lad. Still, the catch he took at third slip was one by which to remember his first day as a Test cricketer forever. Craig McMillan edged hard, thick and high and the super fit fidgeter left the ground with both feet and took it over his head. It was less Fred Astaire's elegance than Gene Kelly's athleticism. The lovely, cheery smile was all Maddy. But this was a bonus. It was his batting that England so desperately craved.

He went in with Michael Atherton on Friday morning. You could see a partnership for the future: the man who was once Captain Grumpy and Mister Happy. Unusually, but caringly, Atherton took first ball. They went along well and if it was much too early say that they were made for each other they were dealing with the Kiwis. But then the senior man went, a strangely loose shot.

Almost immediately afterwards, Maddy was bowled by Daniel Vettori, the left-arm spinner. Done like a kipper. First, he groped forward to one which bit and turned past his bat. The next ball he expected something similar, shouldered arms and was bowled. He was not sure of what had happened at first. He could have been a choirboy in a bordello. Welcome to Test cricket, sonny.

"I didn't feel out of place. I wasn't nervous about batting," he said later. "I felt as though I had played Test cricket before. My feet were moving were well and I was moving forward. I'm not a big flair strokeplayer but I was playing smoothly within what I know I can do." His first run came from the first ball he received, a push wide of mid-on, his first four from his 34th. He was done by his 48th.

He watched the rest of the day avidly. "I wanted to see how Test cricketers play, to learn." He might not have learnt much considering what the rest of England did.

Unfortunately, he went and failed in the second innings too, nudging one to slip. He may feel willing, but clearly there is a little way to go before he is ready. Of course, he must be persisted with.

There is something of the obsessive about Maddy. But there is, he insists, more to his life than cricket now. He has wider interests, the usual youthful things, the movies, music. He reads, he will be married a year in October. "If I'd had a bad day for Leicester I used to go home and maybe shut myself in my room and dwell on it. It wasn't a bad mood, I was just trying to think what might have gone wrong and why." Maddy is less inclined to such introspection these days. But his desire is enormous and engaging and it gives the lie to any suggestion that the young cricketers of England no longer have much ambition to play for their country.

"This is what I want to do," he said. "Win this game and play Test cricket for England." He might do too. All of England must hope that one day in the not too far distance he has the hide to withstand Glenn McGrath's snarl. The smile alone will not be enough to melt his heart.