First Class, First Person (UK Domestic)

As a cricketer one can have a lot of down-time. The moments actually spent executing a skill, whether it be diving for a ball in the outfield or cracking a shot through the off side, is something that can be measured in milliseconds.

Unless you are in the middle, you can be sitting on the balcony; making a cup of red bush tea (the so-called healthy non-caffeine type), or talking trivialities with a team-mate. In such periods, it is fascinating how the mind can wander, especially if one's form is poor. The extended period of time and energy not being expended out in the middle can lead to over-analysis and introspection, a tendency I developed too often in the early part of my career.

In what is becoming an ever more complex and technological age there is an increasing emphasis on analysis of players, opposition and the inner workings of one's own team. It's come to the point where I've begun to wonder what England's post-war players would have made of such an experience. Take my grandfather, Denis Compton, for instance. He was the David Beckham of his era, yet he often needed reminding what time a Test match actually started!

Ottis Gibson is being sorely missed at the Riverside this year. A fairly simple statement you might think. The man was nothing short of talismanic last year. But while his presence was not only vital to our on-field results, as wickets came his way with considerable regularity, he also lent much-needed credibility to the club’s Twenty20 marketing campaign. That the campaign won an award for best advertising (forgive me for not knowing the actual name of such a prestigious acclaim) owes solely to Gibbo’s presence.

There was someone else who featured… someone who you may feel was equally as critical to its success, as his name was the cornerstone of the whole gimmick. At this point I will cease that most nauseating of habits – talking about myself in the third person – yes, Gibbo and I were the chosen ones. Those of you who have seen the film ‘Men in Black’ will know that it features one of many Will Smith’s that exist in this world.

It’s always good to start on a happy note and after Monday’s rained-off match at Hastings, we are now guaranteed qualification for the quarter-finals of the Friends Provident Trophy. We have one game left in the group stage (away to Middlesex) to decide whether we have a home or away tie but we’ve played some good cricket in the competition so feel we have a team capable of making progress wherever and whoever we play in the next round.

Wednesday’s match against Middlesex will be our eighth day of cricket (including friendlies) against our local rivals already this season – with more to add in the very near future! From a personal point of view I don’t feel that intensifies a rivalry because when you come across players so often you get to know them on and off the field, to the betterment of the relationships. What you can say for sure is that by the end of these matches we will know each other’s games inside out.

The nature of cricket and sport more generally, is that quite often things don’t always go the way you would like. You may be injured at a crucial time just when you’re reaching form, you may be searching for runs when you know it may be your last chance or you may be playing well and doing the right things but still you can’t find a place in the team. People often say to me that it must be great to do something you love, to be in the sun all day, and 99% of the time this is true, but it can still be one of the most frustrating and stressful businesses out there.

I have been playing second-team games in the middle of nowhere with a mixture of young professionals learning their game and club cricketers looking to catch the eye of the second-team coach (or sometimes merely making up the numbers). In many ways it is even more of a challenge to play well in this arena. The bowling does not have the same quality as first-class cricket, so the intensity is considerably lower and the inevitable goal of achieving promotion or success in the various competitions isn’t there. After being in the first team for most of the last three years, it can be hard not to allow my standards to slip, but I think for these reasons you have to rely on yourself even more. I aim to do well and not to allow the nature of the game, the varying intensities of the players and the lack of good facilities to pull me down. Really I’m making it sound like one big excuse culture and at the heart of it that’s what it is. You can make the best of any situation and that only comes down to a simple choice.

I may have been the one ruled out of the Championship match at Derby with a thumb injury but I wasn’t the only Essex player suffering from frustration last week. Cricketers are always looking for something to fill in the time on rainy days and we’ve hit upon a real winner at Essex.

It all started at Taunton last year when much of the four-day game was affected by rain. As we were based out in the sticks we spent a lot of time stuck around the hotel. We stumbled upon a room that contained a lot of board games such as ‘Battleships’ and ‘Connect Four’. One particular game that caught the imagination was ‘Frustration’, which only one member of our squad could remember playing as a kid. Alex Tudor showed his age…

I now know why Shane Warne has decided not to grace us with his presence over this county season. The lure of poker.

It is always tough early season when the first team squads are revealed for the first few games and you’re name is not in them. It is made even more frustrating when you have, cumulatively, seven days of cricket rained off. The only way to force yourself into the side is by weight of runs or wicket-taking sprees. When you don’t actually get on the park, I’m sure you can appreciate this task is made all the more difficult.

“It’s grim up north.” I don’t know which wise old sage coined the phrase, but he or she seems to be spot on right now. Rain, drizzle, snow and sleet – the past week at The Riverside has seen it all. Whereas us in the squad, all we have seen is the indoor school, every inch of it. Every bloody inch.

The friendly against Durham UCCE was ruined by rain, so too were three separate friendlies against Yorkshire seconds which were supposed to be held somewhere in the region. Unfortunately a dry patch could not be found for even one of these fixtures. The outdoor nets have seen some action thankfully, and the glee at actually getting outside far outweighed the fact that they were spicy as hell! All good fun and all good practice I assure you.

We may only be one week into the season but this is the best start I’ve been involved in at Essex. In the four-day game against Northamptonshire we played almost perfect cricket. Bowling a side out on the first day at Chelmsford is quite a rarity but we achieved it through consistent line and length with the ball and taking our catches.

A score of 280 was always going to be below-par and we batted exceptionally well to take advantage of that. It may seem like an obvious statement but our new opening batsman Jason Gallian really did look like an opener in his innings of 171. By that I mean he left balls when they didn’t need to be played at but always seemed to cash in on anything short and loose.

Ravi Bopara also made a century in our Championship game and was very unlucky to be given out on 99 the following day at Kent in the Friends Provident Trophy. He thoroughly deserved another hundred and didn’t put a foot wrong in either innings.

As a county cricketer, having a birthday in the middle of April means celebrations are always likely to be subdued – especially this year as it came the day before our first match of the Championship season at home to Northamptonshire at Chelmsford.

As with every competition it is important to get off to a winning start because all successful teams thrive on momentum. Confidence plays a huge role in cricket and we enter the season as a confident team but one that now needs to make good of that. Having been given the news that Andre Nel will be hot-footing it from Heathrow in time for the opening match was also a major boost at the right time.

I can’t believe it’s come round again so quickly. Another cricket season is upon us and with that it is back to reality and back to business. No more swooning on foreign beaches and topping up the tan or earning millions in the City - this is it! Time to perform and be counted. It only seems like yesterday when my team-mates and I were swapping a bit of changing room banter over the latest scandal in the “News of the World”, while Owais Shah was crashing another boundary through the offside.

“Alright dog? Good winter?” is the first greeting I hear upon my return to Lord’s. ‘Dog’ is a friendly term of endearment that our beloved wicketkeeper, David Nash, uses to greet anyone from his missus to, given the chance, the Prime Minister! Over the long winter you miss the characters that make up a cricket team. Nothing quite compares to the wit and repartee that is exchanged among the boys and without it the season could be a tiring and unenvied task.

Pre-season can be a tough old slog, given the early-season weather and the encapsulating feeling of being surrounded by netting in the all-too-familiar MCC Indoor School. It is either that or dressing up like the Michelin man as Middlesex make their first attempt at getting some outdoor practice. Trust me, it is never fun when you are fielding at backward point with freezing winds screaming across the out-ground in North London and Andrew Strauss drilling a succession of thunderous cut shots. However I don’t think there are many in the world of professional cricket who can boast a fielding practice in the snow at Lord’s, as happened on the weekend before last. This was certainly a first for me and, I’m sure, the twelve other I shared the experience with!