Gavin Fletcher, the LTA's events and tournaments director, was phoning around Britain yesterday to find a city that has a hall free in the first week of March to stage a Davis Cup tie that must mark a sea change in attitude and application in British tennis. Hopefully, someone will be happy to put on a show that could be sparky.

Thanks to a beneficial shift in dates from the ITF, the Europe/Africa group one tie between Great Britain and Ukraine will be played from March 6 to 8, before the American spring hard-court swing. It was originally scheduled for May, in the midst of the clay-court campaign, which would have ruined any chance of Andy Murray shifting surfaces and returning home to play.

As it is, the prospect of the tie on an indoor hard court fits neatly into the schedule that the British No1 is planning for what has the makings of a spectacular year for him. And there are six months in the intervening period for those who wish to be his singles understudy - and perhaps throw a racket or two, to catch his eye - to gather form and confidence and show the requisite desire for John Lloyd, the captain, not to have to pick Alex Bogdanovic for the No2 position again. Actually, this is the tie in which Bogdanovic could have snaffled up an easy picking, but the time has passed him by.

Lloyd's captaincy began in Odessa, Ukraine, in September 2006 with Britain's credibility in the competition hanging by a thread, at a level one beneath where the nations meet in March. Britain survived that ordeal thanks largely to a brilliant, backs-to-the-wall performance by Greg Rusedski in what was to be his valedictory singles for his adopted nation against Sergiy Stakhovsky (Rusedski won 9-7 in the fifth set) and was completed when Murray beat the same player in the first reverse singles.

It is important in the weeks ahead to discover someone who can rattle Stakhovsky's cage on the opening day, for he is still the Ukraine No1 with a world ranking of No83. Their next best is Ilia Marchenko at No213 in the world, so this is a tie that, even given Britain's propensity for making mountains from molehills, Lloyd's men should not lose, especially with home advantage - and finding a stadium that can be sold out and filled with those not shy of making themselves heard should be a priority.

Unless Josh Goodall's career goes into freefall in the next few months, this has to be the opportunity to blood the British No3, who has been yearning to show what he can do for his country but has been overlooked because of a falling-out with Murray at Queen's Club last year. Goodall had been expecting to play doubles with Ross Hutchins in one of the highest-profile events of the year, but after some wheeler-dealing behind the scenes, Jamie Delgado became Hutchins's doubles partner and cross words were exchanged.

It is understood that Goodall and Murray have exchanged e-mails in recent weeks and are willing to let bygones be bygones, which makes for a happier situation all round. It is not as if Britain have many other options to allow petty differences to stand in the way of international progress. It is a message that should resound through the LTA, which cannot allow a repetition of the disorder that descended on last weekend's defeat by Austria.

Given his interview on the BBC on Monday night, Roger Draper, the LTA chief executive, still thinks that tie was a resounding success, that the captaincy was fantastic and that everything in the garden will be rosy. “We had 25,000 supporters over three days, so it's nonsense to say it wasn't a great atmosphere,” Draper said, although of that 25,000 (still almost 10,000 short of three full houses), a knot of 30 Austrians contributed more than anyone.