Horton unconcerned over second-season syndrome

Apr 15 2008 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

CONVENTIONAL wisdom holds that this will be the most testing season of Paul Horton’s cricket career.

Having scored 1,000 championship runs for the first time in 2007, the 25-year-old former Sefton Park batsman ended the season by being awarded his county cap by Lancashire and was elected the club’s Player of the Year.

In 2008, so the theory goes, experienced county bowlers will know what to expect from Horton and they will be ready for him.

The player himself is not convinced. He expects a stern test from opponents, but then he always does. He has no time for the slightly cliched categorisation of careers, his own in particular.

“I’m not a great believer in second-year syndrome,” he said. “I’ve had five years of saying that the coming year was the most important of my career. At the start of 2007 I was trying to get in the team and build something.

“Now I look forward to 2008 knowing that I’ve had some success and when times get tough this season, I can look back and say, ‘well I did this, or I did that,’ and hopefully that will help me.”

But while Horton may use the innings he played in the 2007 season as a means of helping him cope with the challenges ahead, the time for fond reflection on his wonderful summer are over.

“I don’t want to look back any more.” he insisted. “2007 was great but it’s gone now. If I don’t score another century in my career, I’ll have failed and 2007 won’t be that much. It was great to be given the chance to do what I did, but there’s no reason why I can’t go on and do more. I missed three championship matches last year and didn’t play any of the Twenty20 games. I want to play 16 matches this year and see if I can score 1,500 runs.”

If he does achieve that goal, there is a chance Horton’s name will be mentioned in connection with England selection.

He said: “I’d love to think every player sets out to play international cricket and I’m no different. If I can score 1,500 runs, I can put my name up there and see what happens.”

For the moment, though, Horton’s thoughts are currently focused on the Oval and Lancashire’s LV County Championship opener against Surrey tomorrow.

His preparation for the new campaign has been well-balanced and thorough. Necessary time off at the end of the year was followed with six weeks in Australia, a coaching camp in Mumbai and Lancashire’s pre-season tour to Dubai.

He believes the 10 days he spent in India working on his technique against spin bowling was particularly useful.

“It was good to be exposed to different theories and different ideas,” he said. “The Indian coaches picked up on a few things like my weight distribution and it developed my game plan against spin and what I do best.

“We looked at whether to play in front of my pad or beside it, and at using my wrists to manipulate the ball. I’m also quite a big sweeper and that was something I looked to build on.”

Lancashire cricket manager Mike Watkinson has named a 12-man squad to contest the club’s LV County Championship opener against Surrey at The Brit Oval starting Wednesday.

The Red Rose County has undoubtedly one of the strongest squads in the country, and aside from James Anderson (rested by the ECB), Dominic Cork (side strain) and Francois Du Plessis (playing in South Africa), every member of the squad is available for selection.

Mark Chilton will be part of the squad to play Derbyshire in the Second XI County Championship at the County Ground also starting tomorrow.

LANCASHIRE 12-man squad v Surrey CCC at The Brit Oval: Paul Horton, Iain Sutcliffe, Mal Loye, Brad Hodge, Stuart Law (captain), Andrew Flintoff, Luke Sutton (wicketkeeper), Steven Croft, Glen Chapple, Sajid Mahmood, Oliver Newby, Gary Keedy