Cricket: Low-mileage Benjamin geared up for Test: Late exposure to the county grind leaves 33-year-old Surrey paceman with a body fighting fit for England. Glenn Moore reports

LINFORD CHRISTIE, at 34, is the Olympic and world sprint champion; the footballers Steve Bould and Kevin Richardson, both 31, made their England debuts in May; and now Joey Benjamin, 33, is in line to be England's oldest seam bowling debutant for years. Whatever happened to the premise that a 30th birthday marks the beginning of the end?

Like the rest, Benjamin, should he play in the second Test against South Africa at Headingley on Thursday, will be carrying the dreams and best wishes of a generation of ageing sportsmen, lifted by the possibility that they are not necessarily past it after all.

Few, if any, will then go and put in the hard work required to maintain peak performances in the face of advancing years, but the knowledge that they remain attainable is a comforting one none the less.

While Benjamin admits to waking up stiff and aching after a hard day's bowling he adds, with some justification, 'that's not because I'm 33, the 21-year-olds feel that way too. The key for me is to keep flexible, to do lots of stretching, that prevents the niggling injuries. After that it is shuttle-runs and a bit of stamina work.'

Benjamin has bowled 1,100 injury-free overs in the last season and a half of first-class cricket, taking 133 wickets. But the real secret of his longevity, like Christie's, is that his body is a low mileage number which has been on the road for only six years. Benjamin, unlike those cricketers who go straight from school to the professional game with their bodies still developing, did not start playing the county grind until he was 28. Thus, by the time he subjected his body to the stresses of full-time, high-performance sport it was strong enough to withstand the strain.

Since a groin injury that required an operation a couple of years ago he has avoided serious injury. In contrast, Benjamin's Surrey team-mate, Martin Bicknell, is regularly troubled by injuries. Though only 25 he has been playing county cricket for eight years and has been overseas most winters.

'I think you get stronger with age and because I have not played as much cricket as seasoned professionals I have got more in reserve,' Benjamin said. 'Playing at 17 or 18 takes a lot out of you.'

Benjamin would have happily played regular county cricket at 17, but having left school at 16 - a year after emigrating with his parents from St Kitts to Birmingham - the chance did not come for more than a decade.

In that time he did various jobs, from apprentice polisher to bookseller, which was cut short when he was fired for taking too much time off to play cricket. He was then playing for Dudley in the Birmingham League and Staffordshire. In his second year with them, 1987, the minor county played Warwickshire in the NatWest Trophy. A return of one wicket for 65 runs from his 12 overs does not look too impressive but, with his club performances, it was enough for Warwickshire to ask him to winter nets at Edgbaston, then to offer him a month's trial.

Benjamin had previously had trial second XI matches with Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, but work had prevented him playing regularly; by now he was a landscape gardener for Birmingham Council.

'I had always wanted to play county cricket,' he said, 'but felt the chance was passing me by. So when the offer came I decided I had to take it. I would always wonder if I could have done it. A month became three months, then the rest of the season and at the end of it I had a two-year contract.'

But that proved the easy part. Allan Donald, Tim Munton, Gladstone Small, Paul Smith and Dermot Reeve all stood in his way and Benjamin was restricted to filling in for Test calls and injuries. In 1992 he moved to Surrey.

'They said if I performed well I'd be guaranteed a first-team place and I have not looked back. I always knew I could bowl, but did not get the opportunity with Warwickshire.'

Age certainly does not seem to bother Surrey. They signed Benjamin at 31 and this year they have taken on the pace bowlers Tony Pigott, now 35, from Sussex, and Mark Kenlock, only 29 but without any county experience. Neither does it worry Ray Illingworth, the chairman of the England selectors, who sees Benjamin as someone England could use for 'two to three years'.

Usually he travels to The Oval with Graham Thorpe, who, one imagines, would have been listening in for the England team annoucement at 1am, but last Sunday Benjamin went to the ground by train and found out he had been picked only on arrival.

'The question now is will I play?' he added with some trepidation. That is likely to depend on the wicket but, even if he does not, he is in the frame for either the final Test, on his home ground, or a third successive winter in Australia.

The last two were spent playing in Melbourne - 'the hardest club cricket I have played, it was very competitive and toughened me up a lot,' he said. Australia is also Christie's preferred winter training retreat. Maybe next 2 February Benjamin will be in a position to invite him round to mark a fellow 34-year-old's birthday before celebrating himself in the following day's final Ashes Test.

(Photograph omitted)