The current Australia head coach joined Somerset in 2006 on an initial six-week deal, making his highest first-class score of 342 only a month later. He would then go on to extend his stay to four seasons, with an English “stalker” playing a major role in his extended spell in county cricket.

“What had happened a few years before, on the ’97 Ashes tour, we were playing at Leeds and I was running laps and doing some boxing with the trainer,” Langer said. “And this bloke in the crowd, he was drinking pints of beer with his mates as you Pommy blokes love to do and then abuse everyone. And he’s like, ‘Langer you’re sure rubbish, sure rubbish.’

“I did a bit more boxing, ran some laps and he just kept going on and on. And I just snapped. I ran from one side of the goal post, sprinting … And I said, ‘You’re a coward, come down here and say it to me, you bloody coward. Just come and tell it to my face.’ And he’s going, ‘Oh don’t be so serious, you don’t get the English humour.’ [And I said] ‘I don’t care about your English humour, you come down here.’ Our trainer’s grabbing me, it was going to be a full-on row with 20 of his mates.

“And he goes, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘If you and Daz are going to have my back like that and show me that loyalty and sort it out, you got me for life.’ And then I ended up having three years. And people don’t know that’s why I came back to Somerset. Because of Darren Veness and Sarge, who had my back and looked after me, and loyalty’s my number one. And then I had three amazing years at Somerset. And those two guys, to this day, are two of my great friends.”