On 4 November 2007 Read ran the New York City Marathon to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK in honour of his first cricket coach, Trevor Ward, who died of the disease.

Read played for Devon in a NatWest Trophy match at the age of 16, and in 1997 made a single AXA Life League appearance for Gloucestershire, claiming an NBC Denis Compton Award that year.

After an England A tour to Kenya and Sri Lanka in the winter - making his first-class debut in Nairobi - Read was picked up by Nottinghamshire for the 1998 season.

Several years in the international wilderness followed, Read being overlooked in favour of first Paul Nixon and then James Foster as keeper-in-waiting in preparation for the retirement of Alec Stewart.

Left to concentrate on his county cricket career, Read claimed 68 dismissals in 2002 and worked at his batting, that year averaging nearly 35 with another hundred coming against Northamptonshire.

The selectors stuck with Jones, however, and by the summer of 2005 Read was not even second-choice keeper for England in ODIs, Matt Prior of Sussex being preferred for the role.

As first choice wicket-keeper in the academy squad, Read got several opportunities to play, and had a successful tour, scoring 254 runs at an average of 66.25 in the West Indies before he had to prematurely return home to attend to a family emergency.

Soon after, Geraint Jones, who had remained first choice for England despite a slump in batting form, broke a finger in the second Test match against Pakistan in 2006; the next day Read scored a rapid 72 against Northamptonshire in a Natwest Pro 40 League game.

[4] He toured Zimbabwe and South Africa with the A team the following winter, and in 1999 his maiden first-class century, a well-timed 160 against Warwickshire, brought him selection for the first Test against New Zealand at Edgbaston.

He was retained for Lord's, but suffered a very public embarrassment when he was bowled for zero, ducking what he thought was a beamer from Chris Cairns but was in fact a well-disguised slower ball.

Read was retained for the one-day squad however, winning the man-of-the match award in the first game of that series, for a quickfire unbeaten 27 in a rain-affected run chase.