CRICKET: Somerset new director of cricket gets the all-clear (From Bridgwater Mercury)

CRICKET: Somerset new director of cricket gets the all-clear

2:27pm Friday 1st March 2013 in Sport

SOMERSET'S new director of cricket, Dave Nosworthy, is set to start his new role this month the club has announced.

Nosworth's arrival was held up by paperwork but everything is now in order for him to fly over from South Africa.

Nosworthy said: “The visa is all cleared now. There weren’t any problems with the documentation; it’s just a really long process. We are due to fly out to England in mid March and I’m looking forward to getting going!

"To be honest the job started well over a month ago. I’ve been communicating daily with the lads through regular Skype calls and emails so I’m well in to the swing of things.

"The only thing that has been missing is my actual physical presence but other than that I’ve been flat out in to the job.”

The 44-year-old is raring to go and is keen to get all the players together before the season gets underway.

He added: “It’s difficult as a lot of the players are currently all over the world. There are quite a few guys that are travelling around playing all different formats of the game for various different teams.

"One of the first things I want to do is to kick the season off with a Team Seminar which we are currently arranging and preparing for so that everyone is present.

"This will involve setting out key objectives for the season ahead and will also allow all of the guys to get together and to re-establish core team values.”

Nosworthy, who has been appointed following an extensive selection process, knows that a good start is vital if Somerset is to challenge for silverware in 2013.

He said: “A lot of the off-season work has been designed to ensure that we get off to a good start. There have been plans put in place to try and ensure that we can hit the ground running.

"I’m looking forward to our pre-season games so that I can see how the guys perform and how they have got along with their winter work.”

The Director of Cricket role is a difficult position to define within the sport but the new man at the helm at The County Ground knows how he is going to approach it.

Nosworth said: “It’s the type of position that will evolve as my time at the club progresses. I will be a very ‘hands on’ type Director of Cricket, which is something that the club wanted.

"I’m looking forward to that aspect as I’m still reasonably young enough to be involved with the guys on the training field and to be able to get my hands dirty when required.

"Obviously we’ve got some really top class staff in place and by no means will I be overshadowing them or interfering with their specific roles – but it will be key for us all to gel really well and to be singing off the same hymn sheet.

"We’ve implemented certain aspects already to ensure that we as the team management and coaching staff are communicating more regularly, and at this stage we seem to have everything under control.

"I’m looking forward to ensuring that the good work that has been done in the past is continued at the Academy and 2nd XI levels. "I’ll also be looking for new talent so as to make sure that we are making the best use of all the talent that we have available to us in the area.”