No more excuses for GB

The expression "into the unknown" is overused in sport, sometimes to prepare us for a fall, sometimes to disguise poor preparation.

Here in snowbound Vilnius, the British Davis Cup squad arrived via a budget airline and a rickety yellow bus for their Euro/Africa Group II match with Lithuania.

This may be the tennis wilderness but it is not "the unknown". There should be few surprises this weekend and, therefore, there can be no excuses.

The preparation has been done, the Lithuanians have been watched (there are only three with world rankings) and the court is fast-indoor hard, one of 15 housed within an established tennis academy on the industrial outskirts of the city.

The centre - named after the American of Lithuanian parentage Vitas Gerulaitis - is an excellent facility, with 1000 junior players using its courts regularly, although the ceiling is very low and the lighting is half the power required at World Group level.

James Ward and Dan Evans, the two nominated singles players, know they are fighting for an international future alongside Andy Murray, who is skipping this tie but hopefully returns next year.
And as for captain John Lloyd, a lover of blunt talk, he surely has to win to keep his job.

Before we go further, the all-important, all-confusing background for you.

This match is a first-round tie in the zonal second division, a horrible Vauxhall Conference of a level, to which Britain sank in September when they lost to Poland in Liverpool.

A win for Britain would take them into round two against the winners of Ireland v Turkey, with the winners of that getting a promotion play-off chance in September.

Defeat would mean an automatic relegation play-off the weekend after Wimbledon, against the losers of Ireland v Turkey, with another loss there sending the team down to Euro/Africa Group III (and now try explaining that to a friend who only has a passing interest in tennis and feed back to the ITF, who resolutely believe their competition is as simple to follow as pass the parcel).

This is a level which is realistic for Britain in its current state, everyone said as much in September. It gives the players beneath Murray a credible opportunity to sample the winning feeling in a competition which has made others freeze.

Evans gets a chance to prove that his disappointing debut in Liverpool was down to stage fright.

Although he was named in the initial team, he may have given way to Jamie Baker as number two player because the Scotsman was in excellent form in practice before turning an ankle on Wednesday.

Baker was "in contention", according to John Lloyd, a diplomatic way of saying "first name on the team sheet". Baker flew home on Thursday, inconsolable.

Evans must seize his chance, step up and look ready for battle when he strides onto court. His talent must not be allowed to go to waste.

James Ward, now coached by Greg Rusedski, missed the last match with a virus. He may be ranked at 250 in the world but has made steady progress and, like Bogdanovic, Goodall and Eaton in recent ties, deserves a shot.

Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski, "Flemski" to their friends, will bring their successful ATP tour partnership to the Davis Cup stage for the first time. They have risen to the brink of the world's top 50 and should start strong favourites for Saturday's doubles rubber.

On the bench, John Lloyd has to play his part, marshalling and motivating. When Murray sits next to him, Lloyd is nothing more than water-carrier and banana-peeler. With this team of youth and inexperience, he has to earn his corn.

He wisely covered his back when he drew up his 15-week-a-year contract with the LTA in 2006. It would cost a small fortune in compensation to get rid of him now but a run of five successive defeats has never been endured by a Great Britain captain in 110 years.

No amount of stalling with promises of five-to-seven-to-ten-year plans will cover up the humiliation of possible relegation to the fourth division of world tennis. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

The only "unknown" should be the attempts of the British journalists, all four of us, to navigate the Vilnius nightlife without encountering that embarrasing reminder of home - the Brits' stag do abroad.

Even that misfortune is preferable to another GB post-match post-mortem.