Jason Lewry is already contemplating life after cricket. Just do not expect him to make his living out of after-dinner speaking.

The Sussex bowler endured enough of that during his benefit last year to realise there are more enjoyable ways of earning a crust.

Lewry has always shunned the limelight.

He was genuinely embarassed about all the attention he received a couple of seasons ago when he took a hat-trick against Hampshire during a spell of seven wickets in 14 balls, the best sequence by a bowler in the Championship for over 30 years.

So it was not that surprising to hear him admit that he could not sleep in the days leading up to a benefit function when he knew he would have to get to his feet after the coffee and cigars and say a few words.

"I don't want to sound ungrateful," he said. "Less than ten per cent of cricketers get a benefit and when I started I didn't think I'd play for two years never mind nine and get a benefit as well.

"But I'd never spoken in front of an audience before and I'm not cut out for it as an individual.

"I've always liked to be in the background of things and not the centre of attention so I found the speaking bit very hard.

"I didn't sleep for three or four days before functions when I knew I had to speak. Without Ian Poysden, my benefit chairman, I would not have got through it.

"He arranged and organised every event and I will be in debt to him for the rest of my life."

Perhaps his ordeal in front of the microphone might have been easier had Lewry been relaxed about his cricket, but 2002 was his most disappointing season since he broke into the Sussex team as a late developer from the local leagues in 1994.

Plagued throughout the summer by a niggling knee injury which eventually forced him to have a cortisone injection in September, he took just 33 Championship wickets in ten appearances and collected only one five-wicket haul against Lancashire at Old Trafford in May.

And, as has been the case for a while now, he was used sparingly in one-day cricket by Sussex.

"I had that knee injury which just wouldn't clear up but you can't blame that for my form or the benefit. Thirty-three wickets in ten games was just not good enough," he admitted.

Even now, as a new season heralds a fresh start, Lewry still can't fathom out why he had such a poor time.

"I just wasn't myself at all. I bowled well at Old Trafford and again at Taunton against Somerset even though in that game I went for a load of runs. Us bowlers call it rhythm.

" One minute I was performing as well as I can and the next I didn't know what the hell I was doing to be honest.

"By the end of the season I was bowling away swingers around the wicket and I'm an inswing bowler!

"I remember playing a game at Hove near the end of the season and literally thinking I don't know where the ball is going. I don't want to feel like that again."

After finishing his benefit and doing a spot of decorating at home, Lewry was back in the nets before Christmas, an unusually early start for someone who doesn't normally think seriously about cricket again until the leaves are back on the trees but an indication of how much he wanted to rediscover the spark that has made him one of the most feared new-ball operators on the circuit.

Lewry has tended to start slowly so he would have been encouraged by his form in the Championship opener against Middlesex.

Conditions could not have been better for swing bowlers on the first two days but as well as the wickets, his economy rate was around two runs an over.

The 45 runs he hammered in the first innings batting at No. 11 were an unexpected bonus, but indicative nevertheless of his rediscovered confidence which will not be dented by the broken nose he suffered taking a spectacular catch during last week's win over Kent.

"History says I don't really hit my straps until the end of May, but I've been in the indoor school three times a week since Christmas and I'm certainly bowling a lot better than I was at the end of last season," he said.

"Since we came back I have got a genuine buzz every time I've driven through the gates at Hove.

"I want to rectify what happened last year and I still feel I've got a lot to offer."

Not so long ago there were suggestions around the County Ground that Lewry might look to continue his career elsewhere.

But he agreed an improved contract which expires at the end of this season and now, happily settled with his young family near Worthing, he insists that he wants to finish his playing days with his native county.

"I don't want to play anywhere else," he insisted. "I know that if I did the first thing I would do in the evening would be switch on Teletext and see how Sussex are doing.

"If I had a year like last year the club probably won't offer me a new contract and I probably won't want to carry on playing anyway, but I want to go out on a high."

Lewry is already planning for the future.

He goes back to college in September to try and qualify as an electrician, the career which was interrupted when Sussex came calling back in 1994.

"It's something for when I retire, but I still feel I have got two very good seasons left in me and maybe a third. I'm just taking each season as it comes now. I hope this isn't my last year but if it is I'll be able to look back and say: 'What an amazing thing to happen to a boy from Goring.'"

In Lewry's world, there are clearly less stressful ways of earning a living than after-dinner speaking. Fast bowling is one of them and you get the impression that he has a few more wickets to take before he starts repairing fuse boxes.