SWEET and true, the ball sailed into the distance, just missing the tractor - and the man inside it, eating his sandwich - on the boundary, writes BRIAN DOOGAN.

The next one was similarly dispatched, deviating a little to the right but, heck, it sounded crisp and it felt good.

The process was repeated over and over, each shot as good as the one before until the heavens opened and the rain brought a premature close to play.

The wet finale wasn't unlike some of the Cricket matches Ian Hewett has been involved in so far in the Lancashire League this season.

But this was Burnley Driving Range - golf that is - and the irony wasn't lost on the even-tempered Australian.

"You don't really get that in Australia much - playing golf in the rain," he suggested.

"The most important club in your bag here seems to be your brolly!"

The most significant club in Ian Hewett's bag, the bag of his life's experience, is undoubtedly his temperament.

A fast bowler he may be - and committed to being an outstanding cricketer - but he is neither the type to lose his head in a crisis nor, should success come his way, in the clouds.

When all else about his life changes, his personality will remain a constant.

"He's a very nice young man, a very quiet Australian for a change" declared Keith Roscoe, the former Edenfield pro, who is a thespian, a story teller and a right good laugh.

"I've only heard him scream once and that's when we went down to the Rhythm Station and it cost him about £11 for four drinks!

"His only fault is when he comes round to my place for breakfast on a Sunday morning. "I'll say: 'Come to breakfast if you want something in the morning.' He'll reply: 'Right, lovely.' Bang bang bang.

"Nine minutes past ten, he sits down, reads the paper has some brekky and a nice cup of tea and all that.

"And then at ten to eleven, 'I'm just doing the washing up, pro'.

"He'll say: 'Right, thanks Kes, I'll be off'.

"And away he goes!"

After sampling Keith's cooking though, some might suggest he probably has good reason to make a mad dash out the door.

For in the afternoon, the recipient of such fine hospitality might get more runs than he bargained for.

When it comes to what Hewett has bargained for in professional cricket, the 21-year-old from Hughesdale, a tidy suburb of Melbourne, is admirably philosophical, not to mention mature for his years.

His sights are aimed high - he wants to play Test cricket for his country - but he won't be on the lookout for a secluded place to slash the wrists if it doesn't happen for him.

In fact, alternative avenues are already being pursued in the shape of a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Sport Coaching and Human Movement at Deacon University which he has had to defer after a year in order to be at Rawtenstall.

"Unless you are a Brian Lara you wouldn't depend on cricket," he said.

"It would be silly to put all your eggs in one basket.

"I'm not saying I'll give up my career for the course.

"I'm balancing the two at the minute.

"It depends how you manage time.

"I get my work done - I passed my subject.

"My dad has been so successful raising five kids and putting us all through really good schools so I don't want to get to 30 and think, Jeez, I haven't got a piece of paper to go out and get a really good job.

"And I'm not saying I want to be around cricket for the rest of my life.

"If that comes about through hard work and it becomes my career, then I'd like to do that - it's what I'm doing now.

"But, yeah, in the back of my mind I want to get a degree."

His cricket education hasn't been shoddy either.

Starting at Morabhan Junior Club, he proved good enough to play for his school At St Kevin's College, where it was also compulsory to play a musical instrument, Ian was so bad at everything, trumpet, trombone, tuba, he was changed to a different one every two or so weeks.

From there he moved to the Prahran Cricket Club where he still plays his club cricket.

He was then selected for Victoria Under 17s, progressed to the Under 19s and from there was picked for Australia Under 19s.

He also experienced the classic grounding in Australian cricket, The Golden Road as they like to call it, when he was invited by Rodney Marsh to spend a year at the Australian Institute of Sport.

"From my point of view, being at the Academy was a fantastic experience," he recalled.

"It's so disciplined and you cover so many areas of the game.

"You have three weights sessions a week, you have psychologists coming in and ex-Test cricketers talking to you about the game.

"And it's not like you're stuck in a room. You get out to bat and train and you learn a lot from those Test cricketers, a lot more than you do out of a book.

"Someone like Ian Chapple would come in and speak about captaincy.

"Bruce Yardley came in for an off-spinner's week and they get in young off-spinners from around the country and they all come to Adelaide and they have a week-long or two-week session.

"And then someone like Dennis Lillee will come in and do the fast bowling and Shane Warne will do the leg spinners.

"It's really up to the individual how much you take away and how much you work at it, but the majority of the guys who come out of the Academy do quite well."

With the Academy he toured Pakistan, where they played the A team, and in February last year he was selected for Victoria's Sheffield Shield side and played his first game against South Australia at the MCG.

"It was amazing. Just to be out there with Dean Jones and guys like that is quite an experience," he said. "I played a couple of games and then this season I played fair at home in district competition and played a few one-dayers for Victoria.

"I wasn't a regular, but that's not a worry. I have three or four years more to make sure of that."

What was a worry, potentially, were allegations levelled at him last year by certain individuals about his bowling action. They said he chucked the ball.

But Hewett remained unfazed.

"There were accusations," he admitted. "I wasn't actually called in a game. There were accusations, yeah, that my arm was bent when I was bowling.

"The video was taken to the Umpires Association of Australia and I was cleared. It wasn't the easiest thing to deal with - people questioning everything you had done for the past 10 years.

"But the people who know whether someone's throwing it or not were the ones who said I didn't, so that's all that matters."

Through it all, his friends stood by him, many of whom are involved in that other great Australian pastime, Aussie Rules which Hewett himself played before putting it on the backburner to concentrate on cricket.

"As a centre half forward I was supposed to take the big knocks and get a few goals, but it didn't turn out that way," he said.

"I think it was an easy choice to make between the two games, for in Aussie Rules everyone started getting wider and I just got taller.

"I still like to play it, but, for instance, obviously coming over here I can't play. And footie didn't even come into the equation.

"It's not an overly sensible thing for me to do. If I go out and do my knee, I could be out of cricket for two years and at this stage I can't afford to be injured."

Otherwise he might not realise his ultimate aspirations.

"I want to be successful. I want to be rich. I want to have a big family. But none of that's come to light just yet. That's 30 years on," predicted Ian.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.