STEVEN Kirby has earned quite a reputation for being as mad as a hatter on the field. But once on the other side of the boundary fence he is becoming known as one of county cricket's most diplomatic ambassadors.

The man with the glares and the stares and the occasional remark that gets right up the noses of opposing batsmen surprised the national media with his articulate and modest manner after completing his sensational match return of 13-154 against Somerset at Taunton earlier this week.

Those who know Kirby a little better, however, were already aware that his apparently unpredictable behaviour in the heat of battle is mostly a front and that lurking behind it is a likeable person who listens and learns and is bent on improving his game in every match he plays.

He remains, of course, quite an eccentric character, and thank goodness for that because the game would be all the poorer without the occasional splash of colour.

Kirby (pictured right) began to build up his image from the moment of his unique debut match for Yorkshire when he signed up for them in the middle of the Kent game at Headingley two years' ago in order to replace Matthew Hoggard who had been whisked away on England duty.

The red-haired paceman from Leicester walked down the pitch on his follow through as soon as he was thrown the ball and started to thrust his face close up to openers David Fulton and Rob Key while at the same time offering a few choice words.

They were thunderstruck at this approach from a former county second team player they had barely heard of and so were their colleagues lower down the order, but they were also undone by Kirby's superb bowling which brought him figures of 7-50.

Later on, Kirby became the talk of dressing rooms around the county circuit for his growling remark to Michael Atherton during a Roses match of "I've got better batsmen than you in my fridge".

Since then, batsmen seem to quite like being baited by Kirby and they are often hugely disappointed if he only trades the routine stuff that goes on in the middle day in and day out.

Sometimes he does go dangerously close to overstepping the mark as happened at Grace Road last summer when he was reprimanded by the umpires and collected three points under the new disciplinary code.

Yet he insists that more often than not he is just glowering at batsman and only rarely gets involved in verbal exchanges.

Because he sometimes acts as a clown, it is easy not to appreciate just how much cricket means to Kirby and how desperately keen he is to play the game well.

"I may play things up on the field but I love talking about the game afterwards and I think it is a pity that opposing sides don't get together after the match as often as they used to do," he said.

"I would love to have played in the days when players met up in the bar and talked cricket all the time and everyone got to know each other so well, but now players generally drift off afterwards and I think it's a shame."

If Yorkshire always had the luxury of a full armoury of fast bowlers to choose from, then Kirby would still not be an automatic choice for selection, yet none of his colleagues can compare with his bowling record since he joined up with them for that Kent match in June, 2001.

From that game until the start of this week's clash with Derbyshire, Kirby had taken 105 Championship wickets for Yorkshire with his nearest rival, surprisingly, being off-spinner Richard Dawson with 68, although his star is now on the wane.

Off his fellow fast bowlers, Chris Silverwood had claimed 65 dismissals, Ryan Sidebottom 60 and Matthew Hoggard 48.

The figures reveal that Kirby is certainly no fool when it comes to bowling and that it was quite fitting this week that he should return the best match figures by a Yorkshire fast bowler since the great Fred Trueman in his own dramatic way shifted 13 Sussex batsmen for 77 runs against Sussex at Hove in 1965.

If Fred were to meet up with Kirby and shake his hand on his achievement, I know that Kirby would have very little to say.

He would just go weak at the knees at receiving such a compliment from one of the giants of the game.

Updated: 10:41 Saturday, July 05, 2003