On the day he learned he would be England’s new opener, Emilio Gay drove from Durham to Bedford to tell his parents about his first international call-up.
The 26-year-old Durham batter received a phone call at 08:00 BST from his county director of cricket and new England national selector Marcus North, telling the left-hander he is in the squad to play New Zealand at Lord’s on 4 June.
“He actually kind of woke me up,” Gay told BBC Radio 5 Live.
Instead of then calling his parents to relay the news, Gay decided to jump in the car as part of his journey to the County Championship game against Kent at Beckenham on Friday.
“I didn’t really want to ring them, because we’ve been through so much,” said Gay. “I thought I’ve got to be there to tell them. I drove back to Bedford.
“My brother videoed it and it was a moment I’ll never forget. It was a really good day.”
Gay’s mother is Italian, which is how he qualified to play three T20 internationals for Italy last year.
His father’s family hail from Grenada and it was a trip to the Caribbean in 2007, around the time West Indies hosted the World Cup, that sparked Gay’s love of cricket. He even got a signed shirt from former Windies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo.
“I fell in love with the game through my dad’s family roots in the Caribbean,” said Gay.
“That’s how I really got into it properly at seven years old, and from there it built and built. One day I dreamed of getting called up to play for England and that day came today.”
Just like Sir Alastair Cook, the most successful opener ever to play for England, Gay is a former pupil of Bedford School.
He began his professional career at Northamptonshire and moved to Durham last season. A specialist opener by trade, he usually bats at three for the north-east county.
Though Gay is one of two uncapped batters in the England squad for the first Test against New Zealand, alongside Somerset’s James Rew, director of cricket Rob Key has confirmed it will be Gay opening at Lord’s against the Black Caps.
He will take the place of Zak Crawley, who has been dropped following the 4-1 Ashes defeat in Australia.
Crawley’s omission has been expected for some time, with Gay’s three centuries at the beginning of the new County Championship season putting him in the spotlight.
