Somerset are seeking to return to where they were several years ago as regular challengers for silverware in all formats, although new director of cricket Matthew Maynard most wants to win the first County Championship in the club’s history.
Kevin Howells (BBC radio)
I believe at this level good management is vital, and Matthew Maynard should reignite a talented bunch who've stalled in the last year or two. I'm looking forward to seeing the progress of Craig Overton especially.
David Fulton (Sky Sports News)
Bowling people out, at Taunton and elsewhere, would be the worry. But Rehman could be handy in that regard later in the year, and Allenby is a good signing. Lots hanging on Tres, especially with Compton gone.
Until a few years ago Somerset had the bitter-sweet habit of falling at the final hurdle.
A series of near-misses in all competitions, including missing out on the 2010 LV= County Championship on games won, left the county searching for answers.
When Marcus Trescothick’s side lost the List A and Twenty20 finals in 2011 the captain despairingly appealed for “answers on a postcard”.
Since then Somerset have fallen short of those lofty, if frustrating, standards.
Last season they finished sixth in the championship and their Royal London One-Day Cup group, and for the first time in years missed out of the knockout stages of the domestic T20 tournament.
That led to director of cricket Dave Nosworthy ending a two-year spell in charge by mutual consent and Matthew Maynard taking over the role.
Maynard, captain of championship-winning Glamorgan in 1997, is now tasked with chasing Somerset’s first championship title in the competition’s 125 years.
A relaxed Maynard, speaking exclusively to ecb.co.uk, joked that a maiden crown would have an addition benefit for Trescothick at Somerset’s Taunton home.
“What he says is if we can win the County Championship he can have a roof on his stand,” Maynard quipped before continuing more seriously.
“I don’t think it’s just for Marcus. It’s the supporters who have tasted success over the years but obviously not the County Championship. It’s for them.
“It’d help get a monkey off the back as well, and you can just carry on playing. But that first one is always going to be the most difficult.”
Somerset, who did win the 2005 Twenty20 Cup, suffered their subsequent near-misses under the tenure of Brian Rose.
It should be remembered that Rose, who took over in 2004, transformed Somerset from languishing near the foot of Division Two to top-flight heavyweights.
Andy Hurry succeeded Rose after the 2012 campaign, but could not find the answers Trescothick and Co craved.
Maynard accepts there is no simple solution to again becoming challengers for silverware, let alone lifting a trophy.
“It’s about getting to the finals and semi-finals. It is about winning, of course, but you can’t win unless you’re in those finals and semi-finals at the back-end of the competition,” he added.
“It’s been a tough couple of years and hopefully I can bring back the top work Brian Rose and Andy Hurry did and allow the players to play to the best of their ability.”
Somerset go in search of silverware with a newly-split captaincy, Trescothick staying in charge of the championship team but Alfonso Thomas taking over the limited-overs responsibility.
It looks like neither will be able to call this term on brilliant wicketkeeper-batsman Craig Kieswetter, who is taking time out to try to recover from a terrible eye injury.
Maynard has recruited some big overseas signings, notably West Indies master-blaster Chris Gayle, New Zealand World Cup-finalist Corey Anderson, a powerful all-rounder, and Pakistan paceman Sohail Tanvir for NatWest T20 Blast stints.
Recruits available in the championship include Pakistan left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman, who had a successful spell with Somerset in 2012, canny Australian all-rounder Jim Allenby from Glamorgan, and Netherlands batsman Tom Cooper.
Nick Compton’s return to Middlesex after five years at Taunton that saw him earn nine England Test caps is Somerset’s major departure of the winter.
Even without reliable top-order batsman Compton, and despite the outlay on T20 stars, Maynard admits he most wants to win the championship.
“It’s the hardest to win,” he said from experience.
“You have to play good, sustained cricket for five and a half months. You’re allowed one bad game but literally it has to be the odd one, the odd bad half-session, but generally you have to play good cricket throughout the summer, and that’s tough and that’s why winning it is absolutely fantastic because you get such a great reward.
“After a four-day game it’s gone up and down, it’s gone to them, it’s gone back over to us, and if you end up nipping a four-day game it’s a great sensation. Times that by 16 when you’ve won it; it’s an amazing feeling.”
Somerset
Captain: Marcus Trescothick (LV= County Championship), Alfonso Thomas (NatWest T20 Blast and Royal London One-Day Cup)
Director of cricket: Matt Maynard
In: Tim Groenewald (Derbyshire), Abdur Rehman (Pakistan), Jim Allenby (Glamorgan), Tom Cooper (Australia), Sohail Tanvir (Pakistan), Corey Anderson (New Zealand), Chris Gayle (West Indies)
Out: Steve Kirby (retired), Chris Jones (retired) James Burke (Surrey), Nick Compton (Middlesex), Craig Meschede (Glamorgan, loan)