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Worcestershire County Cricket Club

County Champions: 1964, 1965, 1974, 1988, 1989

2018 Season

Difficult as it is to believe after six weeks of ice and snow and relentless rain, the domestic cricket season is once more upon us, and I suspect that many at New Road will breathe a sigh of relief at its arrival.  For the champions of Division Two, autumn's glory gave way to a winter of woe which saw young bowler Alex Hepburn charged with rape, and director of cricket Steve Rhodes dismissed from his position for failing to notify the county of the arrest, bringing to an end some thirty years of involvement with Worcestershire as a player and coach.  Our new chief executive launched a "global search" for a replacement, which seems a lot of effort to have gone to simply to establish the whereabouts of second team coach, Kevin Sharp, who was eventually given the job; but before he's seen a single ball bowled, Sharp has the headache of dealing with the perennial New Road problem of a flooded pitch, which may see the Pears re-routed to the traditional out-grounds of Worcester Grammar School and Kidderminster for home fixtures this spring.

There's a certain degree of trepidation surrounding affairs on the field too, as Worcestershire are notorious for short stays in Division One, and the present eight-team format promises to be tougher than ever.  However, there are grounds for cautious optimism in the fact that the Pears had an excellent 2017, beating all comers through April, May and September, and only losing form at the height of summer due to the sudden departure of Tom Kohler-Cadmore.  The team has a solid mixture of promising youth and proven experience, and if they hit the ground running, there's every chance of dodging another yo-yo year in the Championship while aiming for the latter stages of the One-Day Cup, and hopefully not embarrassing ourselves too badly in the T20 Blast.

A lot will depend on the performances of veteran opener Daryl Mitchell, who passed the thousand-run mark comfortably in 2017 and will need to be knocking on the door of it again this summer; he'll be partnered by Brett D'Oliveira, who was first promoted to opener in the dying days of 2015's Division One campaign and now gets another bite of the cherry with two more summers' experience under his belt, having earned himself call-ups last month to the ECB North side and the MCC.  It remains to be seen whether the Pears will keep faith with Tom Fell at number three after a truly awful 2017 from start to finish, but Tom was certainly a stand-out player in the 2015 season, and fingers crossed he can regain form.  No such question mark hangs over Joe Clarke, but a great many eyes are going to be on the youngster this year as he tries his talented hand on a bigger stage.  With England's number three spot potentially up for grabs, any Division One batsman who can impress through April and May stands a chance of a cap, and after two years of hovering around the England Lions set-up, Joe has to see this as the first of many chances to get a foot in the door.  Aussie international Travis Head will presumably step in to the role vacated by Kohler-Cadmore as fulcrum of the batting order, which is a big statement of faith in the homegrown bowling attack, led by captain Joe Leach and last year's hugely impressive debutant Josh Tongue, and bolstered by the increasingly effective Ed Barnard and the experienced Steve Magoffin.  Moeen Ali will, as ever, be a contributor when other duties permit (the IPL keeps him out until late May, but if England keep faith with Jack Leach then the Pears may be able to snaffle him for a chunk of midsummer), and Ben Cox remains, for my money, the best pure wicketkeeper in the country for his reaction times and glovework.

It'll be a tense ride, but Essex showed last year what can be done with a bit of confidence.  It's all up for grabs.  Come on you Pears.