Graeme Swann is relishing the relaxed environment of England's new regime and determined not to repeat the mistakes which resulted in him being overlooked for nearly eight years.

As a promising young off-spinner, Swann was included on previous coach Duncan Fletcher's first tour in charge to South Africa in 1999-2000 and a bright future appeared to beckon.

But after nearly four months away that winter, Swann played only one match of note - his one-day international debut against South Africa in Bloemfontein - and had done enough to blot his copybook for the remainder of the Fletcher regime.

His next chance did not come until this winter when new coach Peter Moores included him in the one-day squad to tour Sri Lanka and Swann responded with an eye-catching display in Monday's 119-run defeat in the opener to the five-match series.

Now 28, Swann claimed one for 47 from his ten overs and contributed an enterprising 24 having been overlooked for 175 successive one-day matches by England.

He is still waiting for an explanation from Fletcher about what he did to warrant such a long exclusion, but admits it was probably an opportunity which came too soon.

''It was a missed opportunity in a way, but then again it was probably the best thing that happened to me at the time,'' he admitted.

''I was 19 or 20, very naive about cricket and life in general and it taught me a hell of a lot.

''When you can't put your finger on it yourself you realise you weren't ready for it in the first place.

''You read little snippets in the press every so often and it's only when you put them all together that you realise that however you think you behaved and however positive you think you were you were probably a disruptive element at some stage.

''I never had any official feedback about the tour but it's certainly easy to look back and realise that I wasn't mature enough and I wasn't ready to play for England at that stage.''

His only major misdemeanour on that tour was missing the team bus on several occasions, but Swann's liking for a vibrant social life certainly counted against him during that period.

Although his performances for Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire have only recently reached a level of consistency which demanded selection.

He averaged 27.50 in domestic one-day cricket for Nottinghamshire and claimed 20 wickets at 23.25 which earned his place among Moores' relaxed new environment.

''The environment I've walked into now is very laid back and very much like the one I'm used to at Notts where guys know what they need to do and they're trusted to do it,'' said Swann.

''It's a very positive environment and it's one I'm thriving in at the moment.