Ramprakash's chance to erase unhappy memories

With its towering bungee jumps and white-water raft trips, Queenstown is billed as the adventure capital of the world. But if few of the million visitors here each year would contest such a heady claim, the arrival of Mark Ramprakash and England's other recently arrived Test specialists, all looking to spend time at the crease before the first Test against New Zealand, cannot fail to slow the overall pace of life in this frenetic town.

Ramprakash first toured New Zealand with England 10 years ago, in 1992, and the memories are not pleasant despite England's 2-0 win in that series. Selected after a competent debut against the West Indies, it was not a happy trip for the batsman who, competing for a place with the newly qualified Graeme Hick, allowed himself to spiral into a joyless world of tantrums and self-pity.

After one duck in a warm-up game similar to the one scheduled against Otago tomorrow, he smashed his bat clean in half, an act of which his captain, Graham Gooch, took a particularly dim view. Looking back, it could be argued that promoting Hick ahead of the then Middlesex wunderkind set English cricket, as well as Ramprakash himself, back at least five years.

We shall probably never know the true extent of the damage, but with neither player becoming the substantial Test batsmen their early promise suggested, that decision now looks particularly wasteful. Yet, if hindsight always boasts 20-20 vision, there is some irony in that Ramprakash has outlasted his peer, even if he does have to check the team sheet before putting on his pads.

That gnawing uncertainty, like the incandescent temper, has held him back, but is better hidden these days. Fatherhood has probably helped calm him, a good thing given that his wife, Vandana, was due to give birth to their second child yesterday. Conversely, too many failures have probably helped too, drawing their own sting to the point where he is now more happy with his own game.

"I don't know the make-up of the side for the first Test, but I'm preparing myself to play in a three-match series," said Ramprakash yesterday. "If things turn out differently, so be it, but I've got to believe that I'll play, irrespective of how the conditions turn out on the day."

Conditions here could be soggy. As Ramprakash spoke in the team hotel of the importance of getting as much cricket as possible, Queenstown disappeared beneath heavy rain to leave the adrenalin freaks seeking their kicks by slurping double espressos.

"It's crucial those of us who weren't here for the one-day matches to get back into the swing of things," Ramprakash added. "The break after Christmas has been nice, but we need to get the jet lag out of our systems and the cricket in. The match against Otago is the first of only two practice games before the first Test, so we could do with some fine weather."

With Nasser Hussain ordered by the England coach, Duncan Fletcher, to take a week off with his wife and son, there is a worry that the intensity, so obvious in India, will not resurface quickly enough in New Zealand's chocolate-box landscape.

Hussain's absence could delay the process further, especially if his stand-in, Marcus Trescothick, is feeling the effects of opening the batting and keeping wicket in the one-day series. On previous tours, Trescothick has been particularly prone to mental fatigue. With three back-to-back Tests after 13 March, he must guard against it if he is to avoid his customary habit of tailing off in the final matches.

His opponents here are generally New Zealand's whipping boys. With the batsman Brendon McCullum and the wicketkeeper Martyn Croy in their side, Otago have only two players on the fringes of the Test team. As litmus tests go, tomorrow's three-day match will not prove much, and England are under no illusions that they are in for anything but a tough series.

"New Zealand beat us back home in 1999, which was a very low point," Ramprakash said. "We didn't do ourselves justice in that series and I have bitter memories of it. As they were then, the Kiwis will be a determined and focused side and we'll have to play well."

Providing there are no last-minute injuries, England are planning to play all six of their Test specialists in the opening game, including the wicket-keeper Warren Hegg and the left-handed batsman Usman Afzaal.

In India, neither got beyond the drinks tray once the Tests began and Fletcher's decision to continue to rest James Foster is either a calculated gamble or a strong hint that the Essex wicketkeeper's woeful form in the opening one-dayer has not yet been forgiven.

Touring can be tough when you lose form and are not playing, but Queenstown could provide a tonic for Foster. In comparison with experiencing the "Nevis Highwire", which at 450ft is the highest ground-based bungee jump in the world, all those fluffed catches would suddenly become very small beer indeed.

* Darren Gough is facing a race to be fit for the new season after picking up a knee injury in England's final one-day international in New Zealand.