Ex-cricketer Lewis on long walk back from disgrace to redemption

Chris Lewis's journey from opening the bowling for England in the 1992 World Cup final to contemplating suicide and being convicted of drugs smuggling has him feeling as ambitious as when he was a teenager, he has told AFP.

The 51-year-old -- who represented England over 80 times in Tests and one-day internationals -- said it was fear over being penniless that drove him to smuggle GBP 140,000 (USD 183,000) of cocaine in cans of fruit into England from St Lucia in 2008.

He stood to earn GBP 50,000 from the deal -- instead he ended up serving six and a half years of a 13-year prison term.

The engaging and lithe former all-rounder is presently touring with the play written by Dougie Blaxland (the pen name of former cricketer James Graham-Brown) about his life called "A Long Walk Back".

"Do you know, the funny thing is I would suggest I am more ambitious and more optimistic than I have ever been in my life," Lewis told AFP in an interview conducted at the Haymarket Theatre in Basingstoke.

"This is a stage of my life I should have gone through in my 20s with a whole set of new experiences.

"It is a place I have not been since I was a teenager... a place when that teenage boy was dreaming of being a cricketer."
- 'Point the finger' - ======================
"It is ironic that after being sentenced to 13 years that did not occur to me."
"I was more the other way I wanted to be on my own having some control of one's environment and keep your room a certain way."