James Bryant all set for his Somerset adventure

With a little more than four weeks to go until the start of the new cricket season one of Somerset's closed season signings James Bryant is putting the finishing touches to his packing before leaving the sunshine of South Africa to fly back to the west country.

The twenty seven year old batsman who has made his mark playing for Eastern Province told me: "I arrive in Somerset on the 21st March and expect the conditions to be a bit cold and wet to start with, but I'm sure I will get a few knocks in and get used to the conditions."

He continued: " One of the main things that I am looking forward to in county cricket is to play against top overseas professionals who we don't really get to play against here."

The domestic season in South Africa has been cut short to make way for the World Cup that has become the centre of attention for all cricket fans over the last few weeks.

For some however the competition has ended in disappointment. The new Somerset recruit told me: "Both England and South Africa are out of the World Cup which is a great pity. No one here can figure out why Nasser Hussain bowled Anderson and not Caddick at the end of the Aussie game because they had it won! The majority of spectators here are English or South African so I hope attendance will still be good for the rest of the competition, but I'm sure they will."

Before the start of the World Cup James Bryant played against England in one of the warm up matches. He said: "It was a good experience playing against the English side but just a pity that we didn't bat at all well and were never really in the game. The best bit was Nantie Hayward getting fired up and sledging the England top order only to be sledged back even better by Michael Vaughan who hadn't faced a ball yet, something that hasn't happened in a while but should have."

Talking about his own form in the match he said: "My innings was frustrating because I got out just when I had played myself in and received an off cutter from Andy Caddick which cut back and just clipped my gloves."

Regarding the Somerset players he added: " Still at least it was one of my future team mates who got me out. Unfortunately I didn't get to have a really good chat with the Somerset guys because everything was a bit rushed and hectic but I did get to introduce myself to Ian Blackwell."

He concluded; "Somerset has given me a chance to play county cricket in England and my aim is to repay that by performing on the field."

The young man from Eastern Province can rest assured that he will be given a warm reception by Somerset supporters at the County Ground some of whom will find it hard to resist comparing James Bryant with another `James' from South Africa, Jimmy Cook who also arrived here as a virtual unknown but turned out to be very successful signing indeed for the Cidermen!