Martin Offiah says it is ‘impossible’ for his England record to be broken

The rugby league legend, 55, on his love of history and Mastermind, playing cricket for Essex and his sporty sons.

I was more nervous walking to the black chair. I wouldn’t even have dreamed that I’d ever be on that show. It was a bit daunting.

I was actually on Mastermind in 2008 and did the history of World War II. I always said to myself, if I ever do it again I’m going to choose just one theatre of war. I could have done a lot better on the history of rugby league, 1987 to 2000, but I’m old-school. I wanted to stretch myself.

I’ve always been fascinated by history because of how it relates to the modern day.

Well, I was abused racially when I was playing rugby but when negative things happen, you’ve got to give positivity back. That’s the only way we break the cycle.

When people abused me on a wet night in Hull, it used to get me fired up.

People apologise to me on social media now but I say to them, ‘Without you I wouldn’t have a statue outside Wembley Stadium.’

I knew I could affect them by scoring a try then standing in front of them with my chest puffed out. My name meant something to those people.

You can’t shy away from your history, even the bad stuff. People understand the origins of that song but you can see it’s a celebration.

Impossible. It was unique, a different mindset. Everyone has their niche but not everyone finds it or is able to exploit it. It was a combination of my physical attributes, my attitude, my parents, my upbringing.

It was almost my destiny to do that.

I was single-mindedly focused on sport because I wasn’t great at school and I had dyslexia.

I also had a short stint as a cricketer and played for Essex 2nd XI with Nasser Hussain – my claim to fame is bowling out Graham Gooch. Only in the nets