Back with a bat on a mission to rejoin the winning trail

Source: Rampant Lion     Date: July 06, 2003

Cricket: After a hectic week off the pitch, Rahul Dravid looks forward to a busy time on it, eager for his first victory.

It has been a strange week, a frantic dash across Scotland, from Galashiels on Sunday, to Leith on Monday, followed by a trip north and then the launch of my first masterclass in Glasgow, in front of scores of enthusiastic kids, on Friday. Believe me, it has been a hectic schedule and all this without a Saltire in sight!

In these kind of helter-skelter circumstances, sometimes it's difficult to sketch an accurate portrait of a country, but the abiding impression I am gaining is not only that Scottish cricket has been thriving long before there were any football clubs in existence Ð I was invited to participate in Gala's 150th anniversary match, which means this club was putting bat to ball in the Borders a couple of decades prior to the formation of the SFA Ð but also that there is a genuine sense of urgency about plans to fast-track the national team on to a higher level. It's clearly what the ICC want, it's what the SCL and Craig Wright's personnel want, and the trick now is to bring many of the innovative proposals for tours and semi-professionalism to reality.

Hopefully, this momentum and desire will be evident when we begin our three-matches-in-four-days campaign this afternoon against Notts, as the prelude to tackling Durham and Lancashire, two of the counties the Scots have already beaten, at The Grange. The forecast is favourable, and the week has all the ingredients to turn into a mini festival of cricket. If the Saltires can perform as they did against Pakistan and Somerset, there's no reason why we can't be in contention, fighting to get back on the winning trail and increasing our present total of 14 points in the NCL table.

Obviously, none of these matches will be easy for us: any element of surprise has vanished and while the Scots have been out of action since the middle of June, their county rivals have been sharpening up in the Twenty20 Cup and coming to the boil in their various competitions.

Looking at our initial opponents, Notts might not be littered with star names, but they have a group of talented young players, who are the more dangerous because there are places up for grabs in the England ranks. I noticed last week that Bilal Shafayat and Kevin Pietersen have both been included in Rodney Marsh's shortlist for a winter at England's new state-of-the-art cricket academy at Loughborough and will arrive in Edinburgh with confidence high after two months of impressive displays.

The same is true of Durham, who have been scrapping to gain respectability since they entered the county circuit, and who are now starting to produce international-class youngsters, as well as boasting the kind of pace attack which will threaten any batting line-up. My compat riot, Javagal Srinath, was involved in the Scots' opening fixture, when the visitors exploded on to the scene with a terrific win at The Riverside, but though he has since departed, Durham will unleash Shoaib Akhtar and Steve Harmison on the Saltires and these are two of the fastest bowlers in the world.

My advice to those around me is straightforward: prepare properly, focus on the ball not the man delivering it, and treat the opposition on their merits. I know that sounds simple, but although there are all manner of sports psychologists and motivational coaches getting involved in cricket, there is no substitute for putting in the hard work in the nets and, however tedious a grind it might be, rectifying your own deficiencies, ironing out your own technical problems and feeling good about yourself. If, after that, you walk out to the crease and receive an absolute peach of a delivery in your first over, well it happens. The best approach is to be able to return to the dreaded pavilion knowing you had done everything you could in advance, and to pledge that you will make the bowler pay next time around.

As for Lancashire, they will be missing the services of Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson, two of the most exciting players in the land at present, but otherwise engaged on England duty in the NatWest Series, which certainly looks like a bonus for the Scots. Flintoff has always hinted at the capacity to serve up pyrotechnics since he first entered the Test arena, but his recent showings indicate he is finding the consistency and rel iability to match his belligerence. Anderson, too, has that most priceless of assets Ð raw, unbridled pace Ð and the fashion in which he has made Pakistan and South Africa's top orders scurry about anxiously in the past month has been a revelation.

However, Lancashire are learning to live without their contracted stars and I think their meeting with us could be a tremendous tussle. In the batting stakes, Carl Hooper and Stuart Law need no introduction, but Mal Loye, Warren Hegg and Iain Sutcliffe are also dangerous foes, and the combination of Glenn Chapple and Peter Martin will usually induce caution from any opponents. I say ÒusuallyÓ, but the Saltires have been at their best when they have gone for their shots and had no inhibitions, and I am confident Tony Judd has reinforced the message that we have nothing to fear if we play to our strengths, remember the basics, and get the crowd behind us. I know I haven't tasted success yet in a Scotland shirt. And it hurts. But ending that sequence is one of my prime ambitions in the days ahead.