IT IS often said that a natural sportsperson will be adept at any sport. If they are a footballer by trade, some can apply themselves quite easily to another sport. Cricket, rugby, even bowls. Think Ian Botham - playing international cricket and turning out for Scunthorpe United.

So it is with little surprise that I, a Sunday League goalkeeper by trade, would be absolutely rubbish at cricket.

The aim of Gateshead College's Cricket Development Centre, launched this week at Emirates Durham ICG, is to make sure that youngsters who are decent enough to go further in the sport get all the chances to do so.

Durham Cricket Board, who support the scheme, believe it is the 15-24 age range that are most susceptible to "outside influences".

The launch was a pretty snazzy affair, all told. A few of the students from the programme were invited down to question England and Durham star Paul Collingwood, then joined the all-rounder for a Twenty20 coaching session.

I, as a member of the press, was there merely in an observing capacity, but couldn't resist having a quick go myself.

When they say that the older teenagers slip out of the system once they discover drinking and socialising, I wasn't part of any system.

Cricket was not part of the curriculum at my primary school, save for when the Milk Board donated a Kwik Cricket set to the school. We used the blue plastic stumps as goalposts.

The fact I had no cricketing experience as I trotted out to the middle - ready to face an international cricketer - didn't really occur to me. I was quite clearly in the zone.

I took my spot at the crease. Just like on television, I pounded the floor with my bat, looked up, set myself. I was ready.

Collingwood placed his hands on his hips and sighed: "Is that how you're standing?"

To be honest, I thought I was spot on, position-wise. Unorthodox perhaps, but Collingwood's words stung me. Confidence knocked, I meekly replied: "It's alright, isn't it?"

"Erm, yeah. Whatever," came the reply of one of Durham's finest exports, a double-Ashes winner, a T20 World Cup winning captain and one of the finest fielders the country has seen.

He asked: "And you write about cricket, yeah?"

In hindsight, I'd figured it out. This was international cricket. Sledging is all the rage.

To him, I was just another batsman, a tail-ender, the difference between victory and defeat.

He bowled six balls - an over - and I hit two of them. To be honest, I hit them well. If we weren't in the nets I imagine they'd have been scuttling towards the boundary.

I don't quite know why the students, who had assembled to watch, were laughing. I can only assume it was their nerves at being in the company of a cricketing great - and Paul Collingwood.

The youngsters who had gone before me were hitting balls with ease.

It had became second nature to them, timing, positioning, technique. It was all very impressive.

Going in there myself, I know how difficult that is.

Getting the basics is primary school stuff. It's developing your game, learning the disciplines needed, that Gateshead College's scheme really comes into its own.

And if it discovers the next Paul Collingwood, then it can congratulate itself on a job thoroughly well done.