Aakash Chopra’s an avid reader and takes his writing seriously © Cricinfo Ltd

There’s no shortage of paper at Old Trafford. First there’s a notice circulated about the capacity at the ground (“When everyone is in the crowd will be 19,984”) then there’s one more about the parking (“The car park will close at 23:30). Wonder what happened to the good old days of announcements, when everyone immersed in their laptops were suddenly jolted up by a shrill tone. Finally an announcement did come: “Dinner only until 7:30 pm”. Surely Manchester had exhausted its foolscap resources.

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Aakash Chopra, the former Indian opener, is here. He’s recently been selected in the India A squad and you can read all about how happy he is here. But there’s more to Chopra. He’s an avid reader and takes his writing, some of which you can read on this website, very seriously.

He spends his summer playing for a club in the Staffordshire League. There’s just one game a week, sometimes two, but, unlike some of the other overseas professionals, he hasn’t taken up coaching or any other part-time job. He prefers to use the time to read, write, read and write again.

He says he’s been reading much more over the last three years and is surprised with the speed he manages now. It’s not all cricket – “I got hold of this four part series on Julius Caeser and have got through them pretty quick”. He also samples fiction once in a while. As for cricket it’s “anything and everything”.

Occasionally he feels as if he’s writing too much, columns on cricket for one newspaper and two websites. He wants to maintain a daily diary during the domestic season (something like Peter Roebuck’s ‘It never rains’ or Ed Smith’s ‘On and off the field’) but hasn’t had the time to fit it into his cricket schedule. “Some day I hope to write a book but I want it to be a really good one. So I’ll wait till I’m ready.”