Mark Wallace is putting his faith in Glamorgan's new generation to carry them through their return to Division One of the Frizzell County Championship.
The Welsh county look set to be victims of their own success, with international calls claiming players following their outstanding 2004 season.
As well as promotion to the top flight of the Championship, Glamorgan added the Totesport League title and reached the semi-finals of the Twenty20 Cup.
That has seen Simon Jones and Alex Wharf become England regulars, Jones in the Test side and Wharf for the one-day team, and Mike Kasprowicz regain his place with Australia.
"It's great to see people going on to play international cricket through Glamorgan," wicket-keeper Wallace said.
"Maybe in the past people have complained that Glamorgan have had the short end of the stick where international recognition is concerned.
"But we're looking to get people into the England side - and the Australian side I suppose - so it's good to get recognition.
"Mike Kasprowicz will freely admit that playing for Glamorgan has helped him get back in the Australian team."
 |  Mike Kasprowicz will freely admit that playing for Glamorgan has helped him get back in the Australian team |
Mike Powell and David Harrison have also earned places with England A through their performances for Glamorgan.
Then there is Matthew Maynard, who will retire from first-class cricket at the end of the season to concentrate on his fledgling coaching career with the England one-day side.
But Glamorgan, while also being suitably thrifty, are sure enough of their home-grown talent that they will not seek to sign another overseas player to replace Kasprowicz, relying on just batsman Matthew Elliot to provide foreigh talent.
"Obviously we will miss players of that calibre, but that's why we've got a strong squad with a lot of home-grown talent," Wallace added.
"The coaching staff feel the strength in depth of the squad, with players coming through, is good enough.
"People like Adam Harrison [younger brother of David], who a lot is expected of, could get a good opportunity to come in and play a lot of cricket this year.
"Then there's Andrew Davies, who probably hasn't played as much as he would have liked - these guys should now be strong enough to take their place.
"We've always had a strong bowling squad; if you look through our one-day and four-day sides of the past few years there's been a good turnover of players in different roles.
"A lot of those guys have matured now - Dave Harrison was probably a fringe player at the start of last season but now he's one of our main bowlers and an England candidate."
Wallace still harbours international ambitions of his own, but freely admits that last season's batting average of 25.92 in the County Championship was unlikely to impress the England selectors.
| Dave Harrison is now one of our main bowlers and an England candidate |
"As far as England goes that's pretty much wrapped up, with Geraint Jones in control, and Chris Read and maybe Matt Prior behind," Wallace said.
"The way Geraint Jones is playing at the moment he could comfortably play 100 Tests and I could play as well as I could and never get a game.
"But I don't tend to think about things like that because there's so many variables.
"If opportunities do come up then I've got to make sure I'm playing well enough to catch the selectors' attention."
That personal target goes hand-in-hand with making sure that Glamorgan enjoy a successful 2005 season.
"Obviously it'll be a tougher season than last year, but we're a good one-day side and there's new challenges in the Championship," Wallace said.
"There's not a massive difference between the sides in Divisions One and Two, there's just a difference in the sort of cricket that is played.
"In the Second Division a lot of sides look to play aggressive cricket, where winning games is the key and maybe play on more bowler-friendly wickets.
"Whereas in the First Division sides will play on flatter, more batsman-friendly wickets to draw a lot more games.
"It's just a case of being a bit more cautious and watching what other people are trying to do."
MMIX
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