This weekend’s Observer Sports Monthly features a lengthy interview with English spinner Monty Panesar. You can read the interview from here.

It turns out that young Monty also has a book deal and plans to take advantage of his new found fame.

Operation Monty is go. There’s merchandise, an appearance on A Question of Sport, and a website (monty-panesar.com, soon to go live).

There is the obligatory book deal: Monty has signed a reported £300,000 contract with Hodder & Stoughton that will, I have been told, preclude him from talking about anything personal – his family, his upbringing, his faith – until the book is published.

I have never heard of such a gagging order before. For someone as reticent as Panesar, it’s like putting a muzzle on a poodle.

Strange, but we look forward to the book!