Tudor: Surrey sacked me on my mobile

Like Darren Anderton, Tudor is considered by some people to be a "sicknote". That clearly was the view at The Oval where Surrey, fearful of another injury-plagued season, seem to have taken their decision as a pre-emptive measure.

A Surrey spokesman said: "By releasing him, it frees up working time for the physios, the fitness trainer and the bowling coach Geoff Arnold, which is a consideration these days.''

But Tudor angrily denies suggestions that true fitness will elude him. "That's nonsense," he said. "No one has worked harder. Everyone knows that at The Oval. I am not a quitter. I love the game and I still want to play at the highest level. And I will.

"Fast bowling doesn't suit anyone's body, let alone mine. It puts tremendous stresses on these areas and you get injuries. But mine seem to take longer to diagnose and cure."

His elder brother Raymond played as a teenager at The Oval. He was also a fast bowler, but injury forced him to give up. He still plays for Dulwich as a batsman. Is it down to the genes? "No" said Tudor. "He had something else in the back, not the same as mine. He was quick."

In his 10 years, Tudor played in 67 first-class matches and 63 one-dayers for Surrey. He spent almost as much time in the treatment room as he did on the pitch.

When he was young he was known as Bambi because he was rather ungainly. But when he raced up to the crease at the WACA ground at Perth, the world's quickest pitch, on his Test debut in November 1998, no one impugned his fitness capabilities.

Wisden describe him as a " tearaway" and his figures in Australia's first innings were four for 89. His victims were the twins Steve and Mark Waugh, current captain Ricky Ponting and Glenn McGrath.

He had shot straight to the very peaks from nowhere at the age of 21.

Unfortunately it was all downhill afterwards, rather than him becoming an English version of his hero, Curtly Ambrose.

A few months later he showed his batting prowess at Edgbaston with an unbeaten 99 against New Zealand, an England record as a nightwatchman. He beat the 98 scored by Harold Larwood at Sydney in the 1932-33 Bodyline series. Had Graham Thorpe given him the strike at the end, as he should have done, Tudor could have recorded his first Test hundred.

That season he was voted young cricketer of the year. He could have rivalled Andrew Flintoff and been a claimant to be another Ian Botham. He still has time. He will be 27 on 23 October and is only 44 days older than Flintoff, who has also had back problems.

This summer he was allowed to bat for his club, Spencer, and for Surrey's second team and he scored three centuries. He wasn't allowed to do anything strenuous. Now he is about to start a new fitness regime and he walks two or three hours a day with a mate in Richmond Park.

"I love it," he said. "It's very relaxing. Gives you time to think." Then he will start jogging by Christmas. It's a long, long road but he believes he will get there in the end.

"The aim is to get fit in six months, then a few counties might want me."

He is unlikely to attract a normal contract, more likely a Darren Gough-type contract at Essex - pay as he goes. At least it would be a step in the right direction.