Interview: Graeme Swann

By Oliver Brett

GRAEME SWANN FACTFILE Born: 24.3.79, Northampton Domestic first-class record: 5,448 runs @ 26.31; 400 wickets @ 33.13 Domestic one-day record: 2,414 runs @ 20.11; 172 wickets @ 28.09

For all the success he achieved for the national team, Duncan Fletcher's reign as England cricket coach featured an unofficial blacklist of players whose faces did not quite fit.

Graeme Swann was very much one of them. Branded as being confident to the point of cockiness, he earned a solitary one-day international cap for his country in 2000, and did not feature again.

New England coach Peter Moores, who retains the same powers of selection as Fletcher, operates what seems to be a more open approach.

Players of all levels of experience, from Ryan Sidebottom to Luke Wright, have recently been thrust into the side.

Nottinghamshire all-rounder Swann - a tidy off-break bowler who can provide quick runs - is the latest player to earn promotion for the one-day series starting in Sri Lanka next Monday.

"I was seen as not being ideal for that regime," Swann, 28, willingly concedes when asked about Fletcher's view of him as a cricketer.

"You've got to live with that. I'm not going to turn round and criticise anyone's regime, especially someone who oversaw such a strong increase in the standard of England cricket.

"But maybe with Peter Moores in, it has opened a door for me."

I'm sure I can offer something to Monty Panesar, having played a great deal of one-day cricket Graeme Swann

Swann could provide meaningful back-up for Monty Panesar, his former Northants team-mate.

"Monty was very new when we were together at Northamptonshire," Swann told BBC Sport.

"He had unfathomable potential but was not quite the finished article.

"It will be exciting to link up with him again and I'm sure I can offer something to him as well, having played a great deal of one-day cricket.

"I'm not seeing it as he's the number one and I'm number two. I'm not looking to go to Sri Lanka in a supportive role, but to be in a partnership with Monty.

Larking around on tour with England on the 1999-2000 tour

"Maybe I'm getting a bit ahead of myself but hopefully there might be a role for me to play in the Test leg as well. I had a good season in first-class cricket."

The confidence is possibly oozing already.

It will surely help Swann that the most recent of his five England A tours was to Sri Lanka, in 2004-05.

"It will certainly be a challenge going out to Sri Lanka and playing against such a good one-day side," he says.

"The A tour went well. I'm glad I have seen what the country's like, how hot it can be and how good the cricketers there can be.

"It's very exciting. I'm hoping to get in the team and want to be there contributing as much as I do for Nottinghamshire.

"I hope I can continue the form I have showed this season for Notts, scoring my runs at a decent rate and bowling quite tidily."

In his previous, solitary, international appearance seven years ago, Swann took 0-24 in five overs and did not get a bat in an easy win for England against South Africa in Bloemfontein.

Toasting Notts success with Stephen Fleming and Mark Ealham

"The rhythms of the game are very similar to domestic cricket and it's not an alien game to me," he says.

"Perhaps the only real difference is that once you take three or four wickets in county cricket you are often facing weaker batting.

"In international cricket, the orders tend to be strong all the way down."

With a return to international cricket coming two years after his county move, was the move to Notts a watershed moment in Swann's career?

"Yes and no. The first year at Notts we won the Championship. It was fantastic because that had always been a dream of mine, something I had desperately wanted to do.

"Notts are a very professional club, geared towards getting players representing their country, and I have nothing but praise for them.

"But the improvement in my form in part is down to being older and more experienced."

With a wiser head on still reasonably young shoulders, allied to his natural confidence, Swann may enjoy some success in Sri Lanka.

And if he does, a possible future career in the media will be backed up by even stronger cricket credentials.