Otago batsman Robert Lawson, by all reasonable measures, should have been enjoying one of the most fruitful cricket seasons of his life last year.

Instead, he was having an injury-enforced break from the game while trying to find the source of the discomfort he was feeling in his groin.

Nearly two years of working through a process of elimination finally yielded the result of what is known as 'sportsman's hernia', a very common complaint among soccer players but an injury most recently suffered by another diminutive New Zealand cricketer Chris Nevin.

"It was diagnosed while I was in England playing cricket last year but I had been in trouble with it for a couple of years before that," he said.

"It was difficult to turn and run, and it was always a little ginger to taking off to run because you never knew when the pain would come.

"I was resigned to the fact when I came back from England that I would have to have something major done," he said.

Back in New Zealand last summer he had arthroscopic surgery on both groins but his recovery took a little longer than expected. He's only now getting back into the nets to see if he is sufficiently recovered to entertain returning to the first-class scene.

Now 26, he's at about the age many New Zealand provincial batsmen find the most consistent form of their careers. He missed that opportunity last summer to build on the 2271 first-class runs he's scored, including a double century in the 1995/96 season.

But he hopes the break away from the game may have freshened him up to cash in on the experience he has accrued so far.

A member of the first intake of the New Zealand Cricket Academy at Lincoln University, Lawson has already captained Otago and still has a significant role in the advancement of the southernmost side in the country.

"It's pretty good now and I'm very hopeful that I'm going to be able to play a season of cricket.

"The thing with my injury was that while I could play one day it was the backing up the next day that was hard.

"I'm still fairly hopeful of a full recovery," he said.

While he's working in the Otago indoor facility with CLEAR Black Cap Shayne O'Connor, and James McMillan, it will really be how he fares in club cricket with North East Valley that will determine his longer term future. While it was frustrating to take so long to have the problem diagnosed, he had no problems dealing with being unable to play.

A clean break allowed him to spend the New Year in holiday resort Wanaka and the only cricket he watched was on television.

Now that he has had the operation, he is spending his time working on his parents' farm, something he has not done previous due to the amount of time spent playing cricket.

"I've been working for about the last eight months and I've never had that sort of extended time in the work."

With 6000 acres of land needing to be worked on some rugged hill country near Waikouaiti north of Dunedin, there is plenty of opportunity to put his legs through some solid walking.

It's not surprising that Lawson is keen to get back into the first-class scene. Last year Otago, after a long period in the wilderness, began to show some signs of emerging as a competitive unit with some good young talent.

"Otago have been very supportive of me. The guys who came down last year, Craig Cumming, from Canterbury, and Craig Pryor and Kerry Walmsley from Auckland have done really well.

"In fact, all of the guys who have come from outside, in the time I have been playing for Otago, have all thrived down here. We've certainly got some good facilities down here now, and while I don't think there is the public interest that there is in other provinces for cricket, there are encouraging signs," he said.

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