"As soon as we can get that thread going it'll make the transition a little bit easier for the players moving from the districts to the rep teams."
Despite losing cricket-savvy Mathew Sinclair and opening batsman Jeet Raval from last season, the Pretoria-born coach is happy with the 14 contracted players mustered for this summer.
He says the succinct communication from director of CD cricket Craig Ross and assistant coach/manager Lance Hamilton has enabled him to get to the crux of matters.
"Everything has been straightforward and that's all I can ask for."
Raval, who has returned to the Auckland Aces' fold after one season, left because of his desire to help, off season, his family who have started a business in the Big Smoke.
While Taranaki batsman Dean Robinson didn't get much of a look in last summer, the initiative this season to inject young blood will provide a platform for him and others.
"We have some quality youngsters - Will Young, Ben Smith, who are top-order batsmen - who are raring to go but haven't had the opportunity," Malan says, adding youth doesn't imply they are inexperienced but includes cricket-savvy blokes such as Robinson, Ben Wheeler and Bevan Small.
"So the guys who put their hands up this summer will get the opportunity and that'll be pretty exciting."
The Stags squad covers most of the bases of batting, bowling and fielding although there's the bonus of players who'll fall in the category of allrounders.
"It's just about narrowing things down a little bit for the players now and trying to get them to play the brand of cricket we want to play and getting them to understand and be comfortable with those roles during training," Malan says.
Time is obviously the common denominator for players to make a fist of things.
From a mental perspective, that boils down to ensuring the boys are able to make the correct decisions under pressure, "which is what cricket is all about".
The likes of allrounder Roald Badenhorst and spinner Marty Kain missing out on contracts simply means they will default to a bigger training squad.
In the first week of October, the Stags will hold a training camp which will allow Malan the opportunity to build a rapport with the fringe players.
"Making sure we have depth in our squad and adding to that depth are very important."
Last season's skipper, Kieran Noema-Barnett, will definitely spearhead the four-day Plunket Shield campaign but the jury is out on who will call the shots in the shorter formats.
"Having had one or two chats with him, I've found he's quite keen on putting his hand up again to represent the Black Caps in the shorter format so there might be a few tweaks around the white-ball stuff so we're working on that," he says of hard-hitting Noema-Barnett who has played for the New Zealand Under-19s in 2006 and represented his country in a sixes tourney in Hong Kong.
Veteran Jamie How, who was captain in the Ford Trophy one-dayers and HRV Cup Twenty20 campaigns, comes back into the captaincy equation although he and the retired Sinclair had previously indicated it was time for the young brigade to take charge - although they were keen to guide them on the field.
"Kruger van Wyk also comes into it big time and we have some exciting young guys," Malan says, emphasising Young has captained at NZ Under-19 level and is a leading prospect.
Malan accepts CD's anaemic T20 drive recently needs to change.
"Professional sport is about winning and losing so to me it's about looking after the process - putting a structure in place and getting the guys to play their own games but looking after the big format, that is, the Stags."
Malan believes his squad is exciting, offering variables that will enhance the "positive way" he wants the Stags to play cricket.
"I want us to take games forward but at the same time I want to try to develop the individual."
Moulding individuals, he feels, means the collective will evolve into a productive and meaningful culture almost by default.
Malan, Ross, Gary Cunningham and the captain will serve as selectors.
