by Ian Rollit in association with Sportingo. Click here to become an author.

Even with out Stephen Fleming, the Trent Bridge side are showing real promise this season.

It's been an encouraging start to the 2007 cricket season by Nottinghamshire. At this stage last year they had played four Championship games, losing one and drawing three, and in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy North Conference had played five, winning one, losing one and with three no results.

The weather in 2006 did not help matters but looking more closely, it is evident that two key players have contributed greatly this season when compared with last year - David Hussey and Chris Read.

Hussey acted as stand-in captain for Stephen Fleming for the early part of the season and this appears to have inspired the talented Australian. In 2006 he made 83 runs in his five Championship innings. This year he has amassed 607  from six knocks, including a career-best 275 against Essex. In the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy, he scored 13 runs from two innings in 2006. To date in the 2007 competition he has scored 139 from four knocks.

Read has also played his part this season and appears to be none the worse for wear following the recent Ashes tour. Last year in the Championship, he had 193 runs in five innings; this season he has 305 runs from six - and hit a career-best 165 not out in the last match against Essex. In the 2006 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy,he did not score in two innings, but this year he has accumulated 166 from three innings.

Nottinghamshire's last Championship game against Essex saw a good, solid performance against a lightweight bowling attack ravaged by injuries. Hussey and Read not only targeted this to achieve personal bests but set a new fifth-wicket club partnership record of 359.

So all in all it's been a very promising start for Notts, particularly as they have been without Fleming and the injured Will Jefferson. As the song goes: 'Things Can Only Get Better'.