New skipper Mike Burns is counting the days until the new season

Mike Burns, the new Somerset captain, is counting the days until the new cricket season gets underway in just over three weeks time.

The thirty four year old all rounder, who takes over the reins from Jamie Cox who has stepped down after four years in charge, was back at the County Ground this morning after a three week spell in New Zealand, where he spent sometime in Nelson with former Somerset batsman Richard Harden who now lives in the country.

The former Warwickshire man whose career has been rejuvenated since he moved west to join the Cidermen in 1997 told me: "All the family went with me and we had a great time travelling the island and sightseeing. Whilst I was out there I had a couple of nets and kept up with my training schedule."

Mike continued: "I also had a couple of games of golf with Richard who sadly doesn't play any cricket at all nowadays but now I'm back here I just can't wait for the new season to get started."

He concluded: "All of the players have trained very hard through the winter and spent time working on their game with Kevin Shine. Everybody here is now looking forward to getting started. It's really good to be back and I am feeling very confident about the new season."