fervour for the mountains has seen french taking climbing trips around the globe on all kinds of terrains the boulders back home in peak district to the scenic alps across europe to the frosty canadian valleys to the gruelling heights of the himalayas to the avalancheridden peruvian andes he has seen it all just like my cricket i did not have a climbing coach i did a basic climbing course when i was 16 and then pretty much learnt all on my own says french whose veiny arms give away a life spent mostly outdoors the highest i have been to is about 6500 metres in pumori near the everest in 1996 joe simpson english mountaineer of touching the void fame was part of the group says french who in fact met his wife andrea at a cliff in derbyshire during a climb they have five children and six grandchildrenso whats the thrill that french gets from his expeditions its a great feeling to be a fly on a wall and be a little bit scared but to be completely focused on the next hold in front of you and in complete control knowing if you slip you could just die its a thrill usually its after the event and when you are back in the level you get the satisfaction he sums up getting back to cricket coaching while he heeded to the call of the mountains and almost took a decadelong sabbatical from active cricket after his firstclass retirement in 1995 frenchs wicketkeeping skills were too good not to tap into and for the last few years he has been closely associated with the england setup mentoring almost all up and coming wicketkeepers french was responsible for turning around matt priors career by improving his footwork his feet were not moving that well the very first session we had i told him dont dive no matter what i want you to stay on the feet get as far as you can but dont dive then he started to move his feet better he became a much better keeper after thatthe english media calls it the french revolution the coming up of a bunch of impressive wicketkeepers under the guidance of the former stumper i push them a lot i try to make them quicker and stronger once they start seeing the results they will start enjoying it says french who is proud of having handed over the england test caps to four players jonny bairstow jos buttler ben foakes and his nephew jake ball foakess widely appreciated glovework standing up to spin in sri lanka in his debut test series in 2018 french rates as one of the best 10 days in cricket for himdhoni admirer french is not from the traditional textbook english mould of coaching that much can be summed up by the way he looks at the wicketkeeping of ms dhoni someone presumed to be unorthodox by the purists dhoni is a genius his gifts