WHEN England’s cricket team jetted off to tour India in 1984 they could hardly have complained about being over-burdened by expectation.

“David Gower’s team of ’84-’85, we were billed as ‘the worst team that ever left these shores’,” says Chris Cowdrey.

Cowdrey, in fact, purely by dint of circumstance, was alone among the squad in having a weight to shoulder.

One hefty load on each shoulder, as it goes.

Being the son of the formidable Colin Cowdrey – a former England captain who struck 22 centuries in 114 Test appearances – brought its own unique pressure.

Stepping into the shoes of swashbuckling, national icon Ian Botham, who had decided to winter at home, merely heightened the sense of Chris having rather a lot to live up to.

But he never viewed it that way.

He was only in India because of his mate, anyway, he says in jest.

“David picked me. He always says he’d picked 15 and they needed one more, so he thought ‘oh well, if you can’t pick your mates who can you pick?’

“So he slipped me on the tour, then he picked me for all five Test matches.”

Cowdrey would have been forgiven for wondering what his great friend had signed him up for when India’s prime minister, Indira Gandhi, was assassinated within three hours of the squad’s arrival on the subcontinent.

“The whole thing just looked as though it was going to be a disaster from the start,” recalls Cowdrey.

“But it was a fantastic experience. We just played very well and we beat a brilliant India side 2-1, so that was very special.”

Cowdrey and Gower’s friendship stretches back more than 40 years.

It was forged when the pair’s respective schools competed on the rugby pitch, then strengthened across various tours with England’s young cricket teams.

Plenty of tales from those days of yore, long before the sport became the uber-professional business it is today, will get an airing as the two former England cricket captains take their stage show around the country.

Gower, Cowdrey and The Holy Bail, comes to Bournemouth Pavilion on March 5.

The two men are rattling ideas back and forth by the hour, confides Cowdrey.

He admits, though, that Gower’s fondness for a one-liner and the duo’s bountiful armoury of anecdotes could see the chat veer off in any manner of unforeseen directions.

Gower captained England on 32 occasions, across two spells.

Cowdrey’s reign was an altogether briefer affair.

He was appointed during what cricketing bible Wisden described as “the crazy summer of 1988”.

Mike Gatting and John Emburey had already been sacked as a tumultuous home series with West Indies descended into disarray.

With England 2-0 down Cowdrey got the job… and promptly returned a favour. Gower’s form was under the microscope but the flamboyant left-hander retained his place in a heavily-changed team.

That team was, in turn, heavily beaten, collapsing in the face of West Indies’ redoubtable battery of uncompromising 90mph bowlers, after batsman Allan Lamb, well set on 64, was forced to retire injured.

“It was a horrible game to captain in many ways,” says Cowdrey.

“We were in the game until Allan Lamb’s injury. From that moment we were history.”

So was Cowdrey’s England captaincy. His England career, too.

He remained on the county circuit until his retirement in 1992.

It was an arena Cowdrey bestrode with distinction for 16 years, a man of Kent – and, fleetingly, Glamorgan.

His fondest memories stem from the camaraderie that pervaded the domestic game in an era when post-match arrangements were treated every bit as seriously as net practice and morning warm-ups.

“We used to have a drink with the opposition,” he says.

“If I went to play against David Gower we always used to go out for dinner and a bottle of something.

“We would play two three-day matches and a one-day game every week. We were driving all over the place. You knew people everywhere you went.

“I just loved it and wouldn’t have replaced it with anything.”

By extension, Cowdrey cherishes the ongoing friendships founded during his career.

“The most beautiful thing about cricket is people who don’t even necessarily get on, on the field, they become great mates,” he says.

“And I think, more than any other sport, cricket is one big family.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re with (former Australia captain) Allan Border or a guy who used to play for Sussex, you’re all part of that big family.”

Cowdrey cannot conceal his delight at the prospect of hitting the road with his old mucker one more time, opening the doors to the family home on the way.

“We will have a lot of fun, no question,” he says. “It’s not as if we’re working every day.”

Tickets for Chris Cowdrey and David Gower’s The Holy Bail are available at www.ticketmaster.co.uk or www.ebplive.co.uk