It is nearly 10 years since he made his senior Scotland debut, but Majid Haq just keeps bowling along, forever determined to prise out opponents with his mixture of spin and guile, whilst enhancing his reputation as an effective run-gatherer.
On Friday, the Clydesdale all-rounder will fly out to the Middle East with his compatriots for an extended sequence of matches, encompassing every format, from a four-day Intercontinental Cup clash with the United Arab Emirates in Sharjah, to a couple of ODIs with the same rivals, as the prelude to the World T20 qualifying event in Dubai, where Haq and his colleagues face a gruelling schedule of seven games in eight days.
Unsurprisingly, given their home advantage and recent impressive results, Majid regards the UAE as the trickiest possible opponents in the present climate, where the pitches are likely to be more conducive to their abilities.
�They are a very dangerous side, full of potential match-winners, and are very similar to Afghanistan in the way they play, because they all have natural talent, but, at the same time, they are very unpredictable, and hopefully we can catch them on their off days,� said Haq, who turns 29 this weekend.
�The four-day game is very important, as it�s our first match of the season, and the performance we put in will be an indicator of where the team is going this year. All our fixtures are important and we can�t afford to prioritise. The two ODIs in March will be huge, in terms of the next World Cup, because the UAE are sitting third in the table, behind ourselves and Ireland, following two impressive defeats of Afghanistan, so we will have to be at the top of our form, as Sharjah is a bit of a fortress for them.�
The Scots will be missing Kyle Coetzer, otherwise engaged in the Bangladesh Premier League, for next week�s four-day tussle [from February 16 to 19], but will otherwise be depending on the raft of talented youngsters, allied to such stalwarts as Haq, Fraser Watts and Gordon Drummond, who combined to produce some terrific displays against their Associate adversaries 2011.
And although the truncated nature of the T20 shoot-out, featuring 16 teams with just two making the cut, could transform it into a lottery, Haq clearly believes the Scots have the quality to book their passage to the main event.
�We have a strong batting line-up all the way down the order, with players who are able to score quickly and adapt to different situations. In our bowling, we also have some good pace now with Goudie, Sharif, Berrington and Davey and, fingers crossed, Matthew Parker will come back with a bang after a long lay-off. Our fielding is also getting stronger and we have some serious athletes in our ranks with the likes of Berrington, MacLeod, Mommsen, Goudie and Watts.
�As a spinner, I am loving the thought of getting out there , but I would have liked to have had Ross Lyons and Moneeb Iqbal out there as we all know spinners work best in partnerships, as we have seen [during the Pakistan v England series] with Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman and Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar. Hopefully, Mommsen can keep taking wickets, because he was a bit of a golden arm last season, while, myself and Drummo have worked well together and we�ll be trying to continue that trend.�
The Scots will be away for nearly seven weeks, which represents a test both of mental and physical fortitude. Yet they have prepared with a steely determination to do themselves justice and seem ready for any eventuality.
�It�s a long tour with a lot of high-pressure games, so we need to keep everybody refreshed and relaxed as much as is possible and keep the squad fit, healthy and happy,� said Haq, who was one of the stars of the Associate collective which offered stern resistance to England in the build-up to the Pakistan Test series last month.
�Yes, it�s a long time to be away from your loved ones, so we will all have to stick together if we are to be successful in our aims.�
One suspects that won�t be a problem for these ambitious performers. They want to be part of the T20 global circus and Haq embodies their can-do spirit of optimism, even if it surprising that Lyons appears to have slipped out of the equation.