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Worcestershire County Cricket Club

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

2017 Season

After a fairly routine innings victory over Loughborough MCCU, the Pears begin their 2017 campaign this Easter weekend with a trip to Glamorgan in the County Championship. The last couple of years have brought varying degrees of disappointment for the county in both red-ball and white-ball cricket, and in the autumn the bold move was taken to relieve club veteran Daryl Mitchell of the captaincy in favour of the younger Joe Leach, in the hope that Worcestershire could put the failures of the past behind them and make a fresh start.

While the chances of promotion in the County Championship last year were always slender, it was hoped that the Pears might replicate the astounding success of Northants in limited-overs cricket with a crop of talented local youngsters.  However, it wasn't to be: despite a strong start in both the One Day Cup and the T20 Blast, an appalling run of form in June saw Worcestershire limp out of the fifty-over competition at the quarter-finals and fail to qualify from the group in twenty-twenty.  Consistency was too often lacking, and strong leadership with it, and it's these ghosts that the club hope to banish now those young heads are a year older and have a new captain to guide them.

With capable openers in the form of Mitchell and the increasingly impressive Brett D'Oliveira (whose match-winning performance against Them Lot Up The Road at Edgbaston last May was a genuine highlight of 2016), the Pears' batting line-up is further augmented by the exciting Joe Clarke and Tom Kohler-Cadmore.  Meanwhile, Aussie international John Hastings has been brought in to help bolster the team's bowling attack, and Leach will look to build on his excellent form last season.  Kiwi all-rounder Mitchell Santner, who broke his finger in the opening game of last year's T20 blast and played no further part in the campaign, will also try and make up for lost time when this year's tournament commences in July.

Expectation for this still-young team may not be especially high, but there's plenty to hope for in 2017.  Come on you Pears.