If I can achieve a quarter of what he did then I'll be a good cricketer

Nick Compton

Denis (left) walks out with Patsy Hendren at The Oval

"He was born to be an international cricketer and to be loved by the public and from what I've read about him he was the kind of man that doesn't come along very often.

"I would love him to be around now. There are so many things I would like to ask him. I have a lot of questions about the game that he could answer.

"I would like to ask him what Don Bradman was like and I would love him to see the way I play. I would like to know what he'd think of me as a player.

"I stayed with him a couple of times when I came over to England but I never had a great deal to do with him. There is so much I would like to ask him but when you are 12 you don't think about things like that.

Eager to learn

"My best memory of him was when I was batting in the back garden and he just told me to hit the ball, which is what the game is all about. It was just simple but good advice that I think about when I'm playing."

Intelligent and articulate, Nick knows his grandfather had his faults - married three times and in later life enjoyed a fondness for the hard stuff - which is why he is determined to be his own man while trying to live up to the Compton pedigree.

"He was a legend but the pressure does not come from the name, the pressure comes from myself. I want to achieve so much and I want to do it quickly. That is where the pressure comes from. I want to be like him but I'm my own man."

Jacques Kallis is a modern day hero

Upon leaving Harrow School in June, Nick naturally joined Middlesex, where he is still awaiting a first-class debut, and spent the rest of the summer learning from the likes of Stephen Fleming and Angus Fraser.

Tall and upright at the crease, with an attractive cover drive, Nick resembles a right handed Nick Knight in demeanour.

When he speaks, the South African accent is prominent and it wasn't until he was sent off to board at Harrow that Compton first considered his future career may lie with England.

"Up until the age of about 14 I was dreaming of playing for South Africa but then I went to Harrow and I have not looked back since then," he said.

"I'm very set on playing for England and I made the right move by coming over here.

"If anything I have modelled myself on Jacques Kallis and he is my favourite cricketer. I love his demeanour and the way he bats."

South Africa were always Denis' favourite opponents, he scored a triple hundred in 181 minutes against Northern Transvaal in 1948, but a Compton's place belongs in an England dressing room where over the next decade another legend could evolve.

All that is needed are a few virtuoso performances with the bat and a contract with L'Oreal - he scoffs at Brylcreem - and history will have repeated itself.