“It was a very challenging year for us, a year of near misses really.” Gloucestershire player-coach Tom Smith said, reflecting on finishing bottom of the County Championship.
“It was a frustrating year, there were loads of opportunities, especially when we played against Worcestershire, and it was rain affected, we were close to winning that one.”
Gloucestershire struggled last year in the County Championship, going winless across their 14 matches across the 2023 season.
However, Smith believes that not all was doom and gloom and there were positives within the squad with bat and ball.
“There was some really valuable learning. Some fantastic performances from some young players; Ollie Price and Miles Hammond had a really good year with the bat.”
“Even the opportunities given to the younger fast bowlers such as Zaman Akhter and Ajeet Singh Dale, the exposure to the first team environment will improve them as Cricketers.”
Left-arm spinner Smith was also very positive about the new head coach, Mark Alleyne, who comes in after a stint at coaching at fellow division two rival Glamorgan.
“With the new head coach arriving on March 1st, he’ll have an opportunity to take the team on a winter tour to South Africa. He’ll be able to set out his philosophy, it will be really important.”
Alleyne, a Gloucestershire Cricket legend and mainstay of the successful sides of the 90s, Smith was quick to mention that the current side have “modelled our style of Cricket on that side.”
“We’re very lucky to have his services, he’s been involved with the England setup and in franchise Cricket, as well as leading Glamorgan.”
Smith seemed excited about the potential of the two new overseas signings of Australian duo Cameron Bancroft and Beau Webster.
“The overseas player Cameron Bancroft will bring loads of experience, like we had with Marcus Harris in the past. It’s a win-win for us as we get the experience for the young players and his ambition to play for Australia again.
“Beau Webster coming in for the T20 Blast is a really good signing too, he’s in some good form across formats and hopefully both players get through the rest of the Shield season (Australian domestic competition).”
In his player-coach role, the veteran Smith mentioned the way he thinks the club will play across all three formats in the upcoming summer.
“Hopefully we will have an aggressive style of play with the young players gaining more experience by challenging players to contribute in different roles, because we don’t have that much squad depth compared to the bigger counties.”
Smith also pointed out where the side can improve substantially to join the fight for promotion, which included the bonus points system.
“We were off the pace with our batting and bowling bonus points, and we saw how Durham played in 2023 to get promoted; scoring at a high run rate, which leads to more time left in the game to get the 20 wickets. It’s exactly what the England Test team have been doing since 2022.”
If we become hard to beat, there’s more points for a draw this year, gives us a chance of being in the hunt for promotion.”
