Cricket: Nasser's notebook

Even with the World Cup euphoria, I was obviously disappointed to see the Essex lads go down to defeat in a County Championship match they looked like winning for long spells at The Oval against Surrey.

I think I've made it very plain that, in my first season as County skipper, I'm desperate to bring some success to Essex.

I've spoken to my vice-captain Ronnie Irani and he tells me that there was certainly no denying the tremendous effort shown by all the players at The Oval.

Certainly our bowlers have been doing a tremendous job generally so far, but we've been a bit short in the batting department. Not for the first time, we were probably about 50 runs short of what we needed to get in both innings.

However, there's a tremendous spirit in the Essex camp now and I'm sure everyone will be out to make quick amends in the match with Yorkshire at Chelmsfored, which got underway yesterday.

Before meeting up with the England squad again, I was planning a couple of trips to see the action at Chelmsford and it would be great if we could chalk up a Championship success over the Tykes, who we also meet in a one-day National League match on Sunday.

Two wins here plus England beating South Africa would make it quite a hat-trick to celebrate!

Confusion could have proved so costly

Obviously things got a little confused at Canter-bury about how long a break there should have been between innings after the 90-minute delay at the start.

As we left the field we were questioning the umpires as to how long a break we had and they first indicated 50 minutes.

When we were back in the pavilion we heard that had changed to a shorter period, but in the end I understand it was 52 minutes before we got back playing.

It could have been costly for England. At the time we had to come off we had only played 20 overs of our innings - and you don't have a match until you reach 25.

Obviously if we couldn't have got back on during Tuesday evening, and if yesterday's play had been completely washed out, it would have made the whole game a lottery.

Things appear to be sorted out now and, if there is a lengthy starting delay, I hear the official break time is between 10 and 25 minutes.

It didn't matter in the end as, despite miserable weather conditions, both sides showed tremendous spirit in making sure the game finished on the first day.

From the sidelines to facing first balls

What a difference a week can make in cricket. Seven days ago I seriously thought that I would be sitting out the start of the World Cup.

Let's face it, it's not too many weeks ago that I wasn't even in the squad. Then Mike Atherton's back injury flared up again and I was called in.

A lot had been made in the press about skipper Alec Stewart and his fellow opener Nick Knight struggling for runs, but as I said myself both are big match players and I fully expected them to start scoring runs once the tournament started.

This has proved true in Alec's case but, the day before the tournament started last Friday, I got the news that I would be coming into the side and opening the innings instead of Nick.

Strange world isn't it? Suddenly, last Friday, I was facing the very first ball of the whole World Cup in England's opening match with holders Sri Lanka.

Obviously I would like to have scored more runs in that game, but I shared a 50 plus partnership with Alec - the first England had enjoyed for some time - and took a good catch.

Even during the pre-match build-up to yesterday's game, which was held up due to the rain, one or two of the TV pundits were suggesting that Nick might be back instead of me against Kenya at Canterbury.

I knew the night before that I was still in the side. Obviously there might be a stage later in the tournament when those responsible think that changes should be made.

This is very much a squad game and if I was told that Nick was being preferred to me for a match that would be fine by me and I'd have to accept it.

No one can count themselves a permanent fixture but obviously my unbeaten 88 against Kenya has made it very unlikely that I will not play in the South Africa game.

I was delighted to get among the runs in a big way, it was my second highest ever one-day international score, but more pleasing was the fact that it kept the England team's 100 per cent record intact.

Okay, we all know that we've started with two of our easier matches and that it will get a lot harder from hereon in. However, victories in international cricket have to be fought for and we're delighted to be sporting a two out of two record.

Apart from my batting I'm obviously also pleased that I'm doing my bit in the field. I managed a couple of spectacular stops against Kenya and it was nice to hear later that some of the TV commentators were making comparisons with South Africa's Jonty Rhodes.

I think that's going a bit over the top as, in my book, Jonty is the number one. I'm 31 now and, once you get past the 30 mark, throwing yourself around the field takes a bit more effort than it did in your younger days.

However, fielding is an aspect of the game I've always worked on. It's a little easier in the one-day game as you know you'll only be throwing yourself around for 50 overs rather than a possible whole day.

The Kenyan players were a smashing group of lads and the miserable weather conditions made life just as tough for them as it was for us.

All credit to the fans down at Canterbury. They really got behind us and created a tremendous atmosphere at a lovely ground.

I have to admit it seemed a bit strange being cheered so loudly at Canterbury. Usually when I'm there it's with Essex against Kent, with whom we enjoy a great rivalry, and I'm more used to jeers rather than cheers.

Now all our thoughts are turning to Saturday's match with South Africa, rightly rated tournament favourites.

I'm sure we'll have a capacity crowd giving us backing despite the counter attraction of soccer's FA Cup final. It's obviously something of an unfortunate clash as we'd love to be the number one sporting event of the day with no other distractions.

Still, as Alec Stewart said, let the northerners have their football and the southerners their cricket.

I managed to get home for the first time in a couple of weeks after the Canterbury game, but the England party are meeting up again today for practice and preparations start in earnest tomorrow.

Let's just hope the weather improves for what promises to be a classic.

Swing is the thing - here I am on my way to scoring an unbeaten 88 for England against Kenya at Canterbury this week during the World Cup

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.