Wayne Madsen is looking to lead Derbyshire to the LV= County Championship top flight for a second time in four seasons during 2015, and insists he has the squad at his disposal to match his ambitions.
Madsen’s first year at the helm ended with promotion as they pipped Yorkshire to the 2012 title, but after being relegated in 2013 a slow start proved costly last year as Derbyshire missed out on promotion despite five wins in their last six games.
The signings of New Zealand’s Martin Guptill– whose availability has been restricted by a recall to the Black Caps' Test squad– and Tillakaratne Dilshan as overseas players for the season should strengthen the batting, with Wayne White and Shiv Thakor improving Madsen’s all-rounder options.
“Pre-season has been fantastic,” the Madsen told ecb.co.uk.
“We’ve had an excellent time – we’ve had the whole squad for most of the winter so it’s actually been quite an extended pre-season. We’ve done a little bit of mixed martial arts, we’ve been to the army, we’ve done a few different things.
“We did a dance class – which has been great from a team bonding point of view and also a leadership point of view to get the guys out of their comfort zones.”
Pressed on the best movers in the dressing room at the 3aaa County Ground, Madsen added: “Tom Taylor and Chesney Hughes were up there. It was a fun and quite a rewarding experience.
“From a cricket point of view we’ve really worked hard at our skills over the winter and put a lot of effort in with the coaching staff and we’ve seen fruition with the way we’ve played in Abu Dhabi and also we’ve had one of our warm-up games where we’ve played good cricket. We’re very happy with how things have panned out so far.
“We want to get promoted and to win the division as well.
“It’s important for us to get a good start as we know, we saw from Worcestershire last year how important a good start is in the competition and we did the same in 2012 – you get off to a good start and it sets you up for the entire competition.
“We’ve got ambitions to get up and be a consistent team in division one and I believe we’ve got the players as well, our bowling attack is really coming on and our batting in the second half of last season, we’re starting to find a method and a model to get us to competitive totals.
“We’re very confident in the way we’ve prepared and the squad we’ve assembled.”
Many observers expect Lancashire and Surrey – the two Test-hosting counties in Division Two this year – to dominate the race for promotion.
But Madsen insists his side can benefit from coming in under the radar, as well as the confidence gained from winning five of their last six four-day matches in 2014.
“The key in 2012 was the way we started – we really started with a bang,” said the 31-year-old. “The momentum builds from that.
“As a squad through the winter you can feel that momentum carrying through now into the start of this season, and I’m pretty confident that we’ll have that same momentum as we head into the season.
“As a team we’re not focussed on what people are thinking, we’re focussed on what we’re doing and the rest will take care of itself.
“Yes Lancashire and Surrey are both great sides, and we’ve got to make sure we play well to compete and beat them because whatever is said about who the teams are to beat we go out there with our mentality and our game plans.”