I’m leaving England for Karachi on Friday as another year of county cricket comes to an end. It’s time for me to focus on Pakistan again now with a big season ahead.

I have enjoyed this season with Essex and my performances. I have taken 109 wickets in all competitions and missed a month because I was catching up on my fitness training.

I am looking forward to coming back next year and I am also in talks about returning in 2009 as well. I want to help take the club into Division One where it deserves to be.

This season the team did not perform at 100 percent and if we’re honest we were not up to the mark often enough. But there were a few factors that didn’t help us, like Ronnie Irani’s forced retirement, which threw Mark Pettini into the captaincy without any time for him to prepare for the job. Next year I’m sure he will find the job easier and enjoy having a pre-season to get used to the captaincy.

I want to thank Ronnie again for how he has helped me and protected me like a big brother since I have been at Essex. He was a good player too and I enjoyed playing in the same team as him. Graham Gooch has again been a great support to me this season and he is like a Godfather to me with the way he is always happy to advise me.

Talks about me coming back in 2009 have started though we are still negotiating and nothing has been agreed as yet. The club want me to play for Essex for as long as my career allows and that’s really nice to hear as I love playing for the club and I enjoy life in Essex. Obviously, any contract will have to be agreed by the Pakistan Cricket Board as is always the case.

When I get back to Karachi, I will rest for about ten days and then join up with the boys at a camp before the South Africa series after the team returns from the Twenty20 World Cup.

I am looking forward to meeting our new coach Geoff Lawson, who is a legendary fast bowler, and our new skipper Shoaib Malik. It will be good to sit down with both of them and hear heir ideas for the matches ahead.

The South Africa series is a very big one for me and for Pakistan. South Africa is a very strong team and if we can beat them in the series it would gives us a lot of confidence for the tour to India.

On a personal note, I am on 198 Test wickets (from 46 Tests) and I am looking forward to reaching 200 in the South Africa series. Each milestone is another tick for me on my way to my long-term aim of 700 Test wickets. That is a long, long way away though and I am taking my targets stage by stage.