Harry Gurney’s ambitions for the 2016 season are simple and twofold: play every game and win a trophy.
Speaking ahead of the Barbados tour’s final fixture, a two day friendly against Northamptonshire at Windward, the experienced left-arm paceman believes Notts are preparing for the new campaign in the best possible way.
“First and foremost I want to win a trophy, so that’s from a team perspective,” he said.
“I’ve worked really hard on my fitness this winter. I want to churn the overs out and I want to throw my hat into the ring for selection for every single game.
“If I do that and I’m playing a lot of games I’ll back myself to be taking a decent amount of wickets in any format.”
“On this trip it’s really important for bowlers to get overs under their belt and for the batters to get time in the middle,” Gurney continued. “That’s ‘clichéd cricket chat’ but that’s pretty much what it is, really.
“You come over here and get a quantity of cricket in, which you simply wouldn’t be able to do in England, so it sets us up nicely for when we get back.
“We’ve got some pre-season friendlies then in our own conditions which leads us nicely into the season proper.”
When play gets underway today at 2pm UK time, Notts will be facing Northants for the second time on the tour having triumphed by two runs, defending just 131-4, in the final of the Barbados T20.
Gurney, as ever, took responsibility for the pressure final over which culminated in clean bowling Ollie Stone with a yorker to secure the win.
“As I always say in those situations you sort of see it coming three or four overs out, so you start to prepare yourself as to how you are going to deal with it and come up with a couple of plans,” he said. “Sometimes they come off and sometimes they don’t.
“And really the way I approach it is that there’s not a huge amount of pressure on me because they only need six off the final over, so no-one is going to really question it if they get them.”
“As soon as Crook chipped Mull to long on I thought to myself that we were certainly back in this, if not potentially favourites.
“The way the game was going, the wicket was deteriorating and the way we were bowling, so from that moment on I really felt we were in the game and then Graeme White got a couple of boundaries away and you start to think, ‘Is it slipping away from us?’ But we managed to drag it in at the end.
“I’m sure in their changing room afterwards there would have been a couple of questions asked about how they had approached the run chase.
“There was a time when they only needed five and a half an over with plenty of wickets in hand, so they’ll have been disappointed but obviously we are all delighted to come away with the trophy again.”
Should Gurney achieve his ambitions in 2016, it could propel him back into contention for the international arena with England, where the last of his 12 appearances came in December 2014.
The 29-year-old, however, insists that domestic matters at Trent Bridge are too pressing for any preoccupation with returning to the three lions.
“I wouldn’t say I’ve completely written it off but, I’ll be honest, I feel a million miles away from it at the moment,” he said.
“My main focus, as I say, is to try and win a trophy for Notts and try and bowl as well as I possibly can and if the phone rings again one day then that would be great.
“But if not I’m really looking forward to the season and let’s bring some silverware back to Trent Bridge.”
The next step in Gurney’s quest for silverware comes over the next two days of preparation in the Caribbean, a match during which he will share the fast bowling burden with Jack Blatherwick, Brett Hutton, Ben Kitt and Luke Wood.
Will Gidman (ankle), Sam Wood (hamstring) and Luke Fletcher (knee) are set to miss out through injury, but Chris Read's rehab from an arm operation coninues with the second two day match of his return.
Nottinghamshire Squad to face Northamptonshire: Chris Read (captain), Jack Blatherwick, Matthew Carter, Anuj Dal, Harry Gurney, Brett Hutton, Ben Kitt, Jake Libby, Michael Lumb, Steven Mullaney, Greg Smith, Brendan Taylor, Riki Wessels, Luke Wood.
The 2015 season saw dramatic last-gasp four day victories, thrilling limited-overs contests and an historic Investec Ashes Test, all in the unique surroundings of Trent Bridge.
Next season, we’d wager, will be no less enthralling and frankly we’d hate for you to miss out.