Somerset coach in a very positive mood looking forward to new season

With just a few weeks to go until the start of the new cricket season Somerset coach Kevin Shine was in a very positive mood when I spoke to him at the County Ground earlier this week.

He told me: "As far as I am concerned all of the players have met my initial challenge of hitting the ground running. I have been very pleasantly surprised because they have met my targets, and booked themselves in regularly to work with me over the last few months."

The coach continued: "Now we are all looking forward to March 24th, the day that everybody reports back for the new season, and then April 2nd when we play our first friendly out on the grass against Glamorgan."

He went on: "It has been a different pre-season to last year. This year we have put the responsibility much more onto the players themselves to identify their strengths and weaknesses and then help them to plan and develop their skills levels."

What did the coach expect in 2003. He told me: "We know that this season in Division Two of the county championship we just have to win matches, and my challenge is to try to improve an already talented group of players. To give ourselves a chance of being promoted we will need to win at least seven or eight matches, and we need to win matches at home."

He continued: "Over the last few seasons it has been a case of `fortress Taunton' and getting 10 or 12 points from drawn matches at home to try to stay in the top division. This season however we need to start winning at home especially as a win is now worth fourteen points, two more than last season."

Looking forward to he new season the coach continued enthusiastically: "With Andrew Caddick and Marcus Trescothick now having six weeks off I would be disappointed if they don't figure in some early season matches and in Nixon McLean and Richard Johnson we have got two high class bowlers."

He went on: "In our end of season post mortem one of the weaknesses that we identified was the lack of competititon for places. We have certainly delivered competition with our three new signings and have some high quality players here so there will be tough battles for places."

"Competition is healthy for the side, and if we do suffer some injury problems then this season we have got some back up, where perhaps last year we didn't. On the other hand it did allow players like Simon Francis to come of age very quickly," he continued.

The coach also talked about the quality of some of the younger players who are at the club. He said: "There really is some young talent here and we now have a situation where the Head and Assistant coaches along with Mike Burns the captain all work regularly alongside these Academy youngsters. They are all pushing their way through towards the first team which has got to be good for the long term prospects of the club."