The thoughts of Ian Blackwell now!

I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts through the season with Somerset website readers and I hope that I am able to offer some interesting insights into the game of cricket.

It really is incredible to think that at the start of the 2001 season my main ambition was to get a place on the Academy in Australia during the following winter, which of course didn't happen, but since then such a lot has happened to me, much of which is hard to comprehend, but I'm glad that it has!

After the disappointment of not going to Australia that winter I settled down to a job at the County Ground in Taunton, which was not a bad swap I suppose! There I spent my days answering the telephones, dealing with membership applications and meeting people as they came into reception, which gave me a good chance to get to know the Somerset supporters who are such an important part of the club.

I worked hard and enjoyed my time in the office but I also worked very hard at my fitness and was fortunate at the start of the 2002 season to get a century at Taunton against Yorkshire, which was witnessed by the England coach Duncan Fletcher, although I didn't know that he was on the ground until I came back into the changing room.

Perhaps it's lucky that I didn't know that he was here because it may have changed the way that I played out in the middle, but I think that it was that century scored against an England attack that impressed him and sowed the seeds of what was to come later in the year. It was the kind of innings that sticks out in your mind, a bit like the one that Marcus played in front of him I think when he scored 170 odd against Glamorgan down here.

At that time Somerset were trying to follow on from our success of the previous season when we were runners up in the county championship and had won the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy on that memorable day at Lord's, but sadly as the season wore on it became clear that things weren't going to go our way.

I put in some good performances and had a good season with both bat and ball in 2002, and of course we did make it back to Lord's only to lose to Matt Elliott and Yorkshire, but at the end of the season we were relegated in both the championship and the National League, which was bitterly disappointing for the fans and for ourselves.

At the end of the season I was selected for the Academy and then shortly afterwards Andrew Flintoff got injured and I was called into the England squad for the ICC Trophy in India, which came as a big surprise. You can well imagine how thrilled I was to get 82 against India in only my second One Day International, and to be playing against names that I had only read in the newspaper.

After the ICC Trophy I spent time at the Academy in Adelaide working on my game and my fitness that was very hard work for me but something that I knew I had to do personally.

Whilst I was at the Academy I did a lot of work with Ashley Mallett, and he helped me to change a lot of things that I did. He was very much part of the old schooltoss it up to the batsman and things like that. I knew that I had to somehow get the biomechanics into my action, and it proved to be right for me.

Then it was off with the England squad to play in the V.B. One-Day Series. We had four games before Christmas and I knew that I had to perform well if I wanted to get chosen for the World Cup squad.

At the half way stage of the VB series the World Cup squad was announced, and at that time Ashley Giles was still out so I knew that I had a good chance of being selected and of course I was really delighted when I did get the call.

I was disappointed that I didn't get many runs in the VB series, which surprised me because I thought that batting was the strongest part of my game. However I was one of the leading wicket takers after Jimmy Anderson and Andy Caddick and probably what pleased me more was my economy rate, which was under five for the series.

There was an interesting start to our World Cup in South Africa with the Zimbabwe experience which was really just about the last thing that we needed at that time. All we wanted was to get off to a positive start and ended up giving four points away.

Losing those points without playing a game meant that we had to beat two out of India , Pakistan and Australia, but we were pretty upbeat about the situation and put the Zimbabwe game behind us.

Things started well for me against Namibia and Holland , but then sadly I got back spasm and that cost me my place in the team especially when Ashley Giles came back and he did OK.

We were on the wrong end of the toss in the day night game against India at Durban and that really cost us but these things happen in the game.

This meant that to qualify we had to beat Australia in our final game to go through and that was to be played in Port Elizabeth. We had already beaten Namibia there and because it's a slow wicket we knew that 210 to 230 was a good score.

We set a competitive target, and we thought that we had them at 120 for 8, but then Michael Bevan, supported by Andy Bichel, played the innings of a lifetime to see the Aussies home. Bichel played out of his skin and was the player of the tournament.

Of course we were disappointed to be out of the World Cup, but from my own point of view I had made a start to my career as an England player.

It was good to get back home after virtually a whole winter away, but once the new season started to come around I was ready to get going again.

I split the webbing on my left hand taking a catch in the opening match of 2003 against Gloucestershire at Bristol, which meant that I was missing for two weeks which was not an ideal start to the new season. It was particularly disappointing after I had played so well in the pre season warm up matches and wanted nothing more than to get out there in the middle and get going.

It will be brilliant if I can get myself selected for England again in the One Day squad for the triangular series, and I just have to hope that they look to youth and that they like the style of player that I am.

Fitness is always going to be an issue for me. The Aussies don't carry any passengers in their side, but I don't see myself as a liability in the field. I'm not the slowest in the field by a long way, but I know that I don't look as athletic as some, however I am working very hard at the moment on my diet and my fitness.

This season I am looking to get more runs and take more wickets for Somerset to help them to get promoted back to Division One of the county championship, which is where we belong, and also hopefully get a good run in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy. After a disappointing start in the National Cricket League we bounced back and got our first victory under our belts when we beat Notts which pleased everybody at Somerset, but then sadly lost to Hampshire yesterday.

Obviously whilst I was down at the Hampshire Rosebowl with the rest of the Somerset lads I kept an eye on how things were going in the first Test match against Zimbabwe and although I haven't played at that level yet, it is my ultimate ambition to play Test cricket for England.

During the winter I spent a lot of time with Jimmy Anderson at the Academy in Australia where he was the pick of the bowlers. His selection for the One Day squad was no flook because he turned out to be one of the leading takers with his away swingers, and whilst Andy Caddick has been a fantastic bowler for England nothing goes on forever and it's good to know that they have given the chance of filling his shoes to a twenty year old.