Swann prepares to come full circle

England's cricketers jet off to South Africa next week to begin their winter series against the world's top-ranked Test side, and for Graeme Swann the trip marks the moment his career comes full circle.

In 1999-2000 Swann flew to the country as a member of Duncan Fletcher's first England squad, but a series of indiscretions, including a late alarm-call, meant he was banished from the reckoning after a solitary ODI, and did not play at the highest level for seven more years.

Now, however, he is firmly established as the senior spinner in the squad, and an Ashes winner to boot, after claiming the final wicket of a tensely-fought summer campaign. However, the character that fell out with Fletcher all those years ago remains refreshingly far from being reformed, as he proved on the eve of England's departure.

"When we got to the Champions Trophy we were in the same hotel that I overslept in ten years ago," said Swann. "That brought a smile to my face, especially on the first day when I woke up thinking I was an hour late. It turns out I was four hours early, jetlag and all that, but since that first tour I started taking two alarm clocks everywhere I go. But one got nicked in the West Indies, so if I'm late it's not my fault."

South Africa is not traditionally a venue that favours spin bowling, but Swann's current self-confidence is such that he does not fear anything that lies ahead of him in the current months. "Ever since I've been playing, I've been told that finger-spinners don't have a massive impact on cricket matches, full stop," he said.

"But hopefully I'll go away and do my job. I've had a successful 12 months, and I want that success to continue. They are good wickets in South Africa and they've got a good team, but it's certainly not impossible to get wickets against anyone. If you bowl well enough you get rewarded."

His current situation is a far cry from his dark days on the county circuit at Northamptonshire, prior to his move up the M1 to Nottingham, when he was firmly on Fletcher's blacklist and doubted he would ever again get a look-in in the Test set-up.

"When I was playing at Northants at the end I couldn't have been further away from playing for England," he said. "I didn't even want to play cricket for Northants or Northampton Saints, let alone England. I wanted to give up and become a hack. There was a lot of time when I couldn't imagine playing for England again."

Now, however, he's got the bug, and he isn't afraid to spell out his priorities in the game - and with no insult intended to his forthcoming opponents, his eyes are already firmed fixed on the next Ashes series in Australia, starting in 12 months' time.

"We're not supposed to look forward to Ashes series, we're supposed to concentrate on the next game," he said. "But I just want to keep performing to stay in the team, because to be in the team that goes out to Australia with a chance of retaining the Ashes over there really whets my appetite.

"An England-Australia Test match is the most important, and I'd love to be playing in that Sydney Test when we hopefully regain the Ashes. For an Englishman, beating Australia home or away is the best challenge there is. You grow up wanting to play in the Ashes, so as far as I'm concerned those seven weeks [this summer] were the most trying and rewarding of my career."

It still irks Swann that England were not permitted to celebrate their Ashes success, either by a schedule that required them to board a flight to Belfast on the morning after the match, or by the moral posturing of the media and the ECB, who remembered all too well the riotous partying that followed the 2005 success, and the subsequent nosedive in fortunes that followed.

Swann, however, doesn't believe a few drinks could be blamed for what happened four years ago. "In 2005 the team was at its peak during the Ashes and deservedly got drunk for two days afterwards, and that's how it should have been," he said. "The results over the next few years had nothing to do with that, it was all down to injuries and a few diminishing players at the end of their careers. That's just how it was.

"We know we're not the best team in the world, and we know to win in South Africa is going to be a challenge," he added. "But my mates can't stop talking about the Ashes. They are genuinely excited and can't believe we won it. That's why it's such a shame we went straight into that ridiculous flight to Ireland the next day, then played the one-dayers afterwards. None of it was publicised, it wasn't even used as a marketing tool. [That series] should have been used to get thousands of kids playing cricket."

"I don't agree at all with living life on an even keel," said Swann. "It's a disgraceful way to go. In my view, you should appreciate your highs and celebrate them to the max every time, because you have enough lows in cricket, especially as a spin bowler."

Throughout the Ashes, Swann's morale was reported to his fans through his regular and popular updates on the social networking site, Twitter. That medium recently got his ODI team-mate, Tim Bresnan, into trouble when he responded angrily to a jibe about his weight, but Swann insisted there had been no orders from on high to desist with the "tweeting".

"I'd be the first to find out if there was a code of ethics," he said. "But getting involved in a bantering match with a fan is the same as standing on the boundary's edge and turning around and having a go back. It's something we're not allowed to do, because unfortunately such things are one-way traffic. But Bressi was new to Twitter. Bless him, he's a Yorkshire fast bowler, and he's got an electrical gadget. It's never going to be a good combination."

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