What started out as a weekend hobby has blossomed into a full-time profession that has taken International Cricket Council (ICC) chief pitch consultant Andy Atkinson to all corners of the globe.

The 49-year-old Englishman, responsible for overseeing pitch preparations for the 2007 World Cup Finals in the West Indies, visited the Island?s shores over the weekend to offer his assistance and assessment of the the controversial cricket pitch at the National Sports Centre.

A former cricketer with East London non-league club Ranking CC, Atkinson joined the ICC in 1999 on a part-time basis before being elevated as a full-time pitch consultant two months ago.

During a career stretching back to the 1960s, he has produced some of the finest pitches in Kenya, Australia, South Africa, England, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, having previously worked as groundsman at Lords, perhaps the most revered ground of all.

?I first started out at Ranking Cricket Club where I was designated to cut the outfield and stuff like that and then from there I gradually learned as I went along,? Atkinson recalled during a wide-ranging interview with

?So I sort of picked it up from there before really getting involved at a higher level. I then got a job when I left school working for the local county, Essex, where I looked after football, rugby and hockey pitches in the winter months and then looked after tennis courts, bowling greens and cricket pitches in the summer.

?But after working for them for about four or five years I decided I was more interested in cricket because obviously I played cricket. And I was lucky by applying and successfully getting a job at Lords in 1978. I worked there for three years and then went back to Essex to be the assistant head groundsman before getting the job as head groundsman for the next ten years.

?Basically I was able to pick up new information and experience the longer I stayed around.?

Atkinson recalled some of the ?old days? as a player at Ranking CC.

?It is a very small, insignificant club which nobody has ever heard of,? he said. ?And it was actually a farmer?s team. Basically we played in the back of a farmer?s big yard. He had a big house and a big garden with a cricket ground on it. I was a batsman and supposed to be a spin bowler but they used to say when I was bowling the ?planes would stop flying over? because it was too dangerous. ?But I was better as a batsman and scored a reasonable amount of runs . . . but I wasn?t great.?

Although cricket might not have exactly been Atkinson?s true calling, the Englishman certainly seemed to possess something special, a gift even, when it came to preparing pitches.

?When I first got involved in cricket I wanted to play professionally,? he recalled. ?But eventually I realised when I was about 18 that I was never going to be good enough. I played against some first class players and realised what the gap in the levels of skill were and decided not to waste my time as I was not good enough.

?But as I still wanted to be involved in cricket I decided to concentrate more on preparing wickets ? I was always interested in hearing players talk about the pitch.?

And it wasn?t too long before his expertise would be recognised globally.

?The first time I went overseas was to Australia because I have some relations down there in Perth. I managed to sneak in a couple of cricket matches there and have a look at a few grounds and fortunately I got a job there ? though looking back on it I don?t particularly think it was a good move as I was also offered a job at Edgbaston at the time. But it did enable me to get my name on the map,? he said.

His name and reputation was soon to spread across the Asian continent and South Africa. ?I was then offered a job in CapeTown. I recall at the time the West Indies went there to play in a triangular tournament in the first year or so South Africa were allowed back into the Test arena.

?I remember Pakistan being bowled out for 40 on a terrible wicket and I had been to South Africa on holiday and met with Dr. Ali Bacher (South African cricket administrator) and he asked if was interested in assisting them because they were looking for groundsmen out there because they were coming back into world cricket. It was a situation similar to what is now happening in the West Indies where there is a lack of experienced groundsmen.

?But I thought about it long and hard and then decided to take a chance with it because it was a big opportunity for me and I didn?t want to turn it down and later regret it.?

Atkinson would remain working in South Africa for nine years before returning to the UK in 2000.

?I?ve been all over the place and really lucky,? he noted. ?I?ve probably been to all of the countries in the world where cricket is played ? apart from India.

?I was in Pakistan for a Test series last year and I have been going there for about five years to assist their groundsmen and doing seminars because their whole thing is that their wickets are slow and they have a great array of fast bowlers and they wanted wickets that helped their bowlers ? so we used different soils and different ways of preparing the wickets.?

Atkinson also accompanied the ICC?s 2007 World Cup Venue Assessment Team (VAT) to Bermuda earlier this year.

?I was just an advisor for the ICC then but from September 1, I have been their pitch consultant for the World Cup which I will be involved with until the end of the competition. I have been very lucky to visit different parts of the world and lovely places like Bermuda and the Caribbean.?

But in order for one to have a successful career at preparing wickets, they must possess a genuine passion for the laborious work and also have very thick skin, said Atkinson.

?You have to have a love for it . . . there?s definitely no doubt about that. This work consists of very long hours and not very good pay. I?ve done this work for many years and when I first started working at Lords I was paid ?55 per week. That was in the late 1970s and even lousy for then.

?We used to work a lot of hours in the sun and never got paid for overtime. But it?s becoming a better job the more cricket continues to develop. I now receive good pay and get to travel the world.

?My son has now taken up this type of work (at Essex County Club) and he?s actually earning more now as a junior groundsman than I did as head groundsman when I first started. So it just goes to show things are improving.

?But you have to be willing to put your all into it. You have to be willing to work in the rain, cold and the heat and there?s all sorts of disadvantages ? but you must first love the game of cricket.?

Atkinson conceded preparing wickets could, at times, prove to be a nerve-racking experience.

?There?s absolutely no doubt about . . . it is very stressful work to be honest,? he said. ?A lot of it really has to do with the pressure of the television. There?s five days of people talking about this strip of soil in the middle of the field and whether they know anything about it or not, they have their own opinions and it happens to come across just because they are former Test players that everybody seems to think they know what they are talking about when in fact most of the times they are uninformed. So it is difficult.

?During the period prior to the start of a Test match until the last hour of it, my stomach feels as though it has 15 frogs jumping up and down inside of it. You just need to keep calm because there is a lot of pressure and obviously if a Test Match lasts only two or three days ? as we have seen in recent times ? then an awful lot of money is lost and it really hits home when the chief executive sits you down in a meeting and says ?we?ve just lost $150,000? which could affect your budget the next year. You might not get a new lawn mower.?

Of all the pitches Atkinson has helped to prepare over the last 39 years, the Englishman rates those he prepared in Kenya as some of the finest,

?I think the one?s that I?m most proud of were in Nairobi. We had a very tough tournament there with ten international one-day matches to be played in 15 days,? he remembered. ?It had been a particularly troublesome wicket over there before and so I spent nine months going up and down to Kenya up to four weeks at a time. And one of the big problems you have in Kenya is there?s no machinery available and everything is done by hand.

?We actually top dressed the whole outfield with 400 tons of sand with 35 men with wheelbarrows and shovels. But it was actually a very good wicket and I was very pleased with the way the tournament turned out in the end.

?And hopefully I?ve prepared more better wickets than poor wickets. But then that was probably one of thousands of wickets I have prepared and really it?s just one of those things you never get it right all the time and I don?t think anyone has been born yet who hasn?t made a mistake. But a lot of it also depends on the weather.

?I?ve always worked under the principle you do everything you can in your power to do the right thing, but you can?t go past that because the weather or something else takes over and you can?t really do anything to prevent those things from happening.?