Whilst second team cricket has a very important role to play in the development of young cricketers, it is the ambition of every professional to play regular first class games.

For a young player on the fringe of first team selection it can be a very frustrating time, as Michael Yardy found out at Leicester this week.

Called up at the last minute as cover for Matt Prior, who had tweaked a thigh muscle at Arundel, Yards arrived at our Leicester hotel late at night.

As Matt went through a rigorous fitness test the following morning, Yards was having a net. Half an hour and one failed fitness test later and Yards could have been taking the field for his second Championship game of the summer.

But it wasn't to be. Matt came through the test and Yards had to take his pads off. He was off on the three-hour trip back to Hove to play in the four-day second team game he thought he was to play in all along.

There was a slight hitch, however, for in arriving at the ground in the morning, he had managed to lock the keys in the car.

Conspiracy theorists would have been interested to find out whether Michael knew that the second team captain, Paul Hutchison, had lost the toss on the hottest day of the year and was committed to fielding before, or after, the key drama occurred.

Yards was certainly not urging the Mercedes garage to hurry with the replacement key as he envisaged his team-mates slaving under a hot Hove sun.

It took until just before lunch for the problem to be solved which, by my calculations, would allow Yards to get on the pitch sometime during the final session, just when the temperature starts to cool and the opposition's tail end are batting.

Every seasoned professional cricketer will have a similar story to tell of fruitless journeys in club cars.

It can be extremely frustrating and it is important for morale to be kept high amongst the fringe players, particularly when they are performing very well, as messrs Yardy, Hopkinson, Taylor and Hutchison are doing.

Mark Robinson has a vital role to play at the club in this respect. In preparing his young, and in some cases not so young, charges to play first class cricket, he has to ensure that conditions, both on and off the pitch, reflect the first class arena as much as possible.

This was a lot harder a few years ago when the second team still played three day games, mainly on sub standard club pitches.

But these days people have come to realise the importance of the second eleven. Competitive four-day games are now played on county grounds whenever possible with the same playing conditions as the first class game.

Robbo will also make certain that his team talks, warm-ups, post match warm- downs and analyses mirror those in the first team. With Robbo having only recently retired himself, he is in a great position to do this.

One of his jobs yesterday would have been to console Yards but at the same time make sure he was in the right frame of mind to score a hundred and press his claim for a first team spot still further. Quite a task after three hours on the M1.