Richardson cool over Gloucs exits

Steve Kirby is one of a number of players to have left Gloucestershire, but chief executive Tom Richardson insists the club will rebuild

Gloucestershire chief executive Tom Richardson has urged supporters not to panic following the departure of several senior players.

The club, who missed out on promotion to Division One of the LV= County Championship this summer, have seen opening bowlers Gemaal Hussain and Steve Kirby move to Somerset, while Anthony Ireland and Will Porterfield have joined Middlesex and Warwickshire respectively.

Steve Snell, Kadeer Ali and Rob Woodman have also been released, which, despite the signings of James Fuller and Will Gidman, leaves the county seemingly short of numbers.

However, Richardson is confident they can cope and has outlined plans to bring in at least four new players over the winter.

He said “I want to assure our supporters that we remain as committed as ever to success on the field and there is a ready market of good players out there covering different ages and levels of experience.

“We are keen to utilise our excellent coaching and scouting operations to identify and develop more young talent with a view to having a vibrant new-look team capable of challenging in all competitions.

“It won’t happen overnight and there may have to be a degree of patience, but I am confident we will emerge stronger for the changes that are being made.

“I understand our members’ concern that senior players have left in recent weeks, but I want them to know that we are looking to replace some of them, while also giving opportunities to our emerging young stars."

Richardson added: “It shouldn’t be forgotten that we have had a number of players in the England Under-19 set-up and we saw the encouraging progress made by one of them, Chris Dent, when given his first team chance this summer. David Payne has also shown his potential in one-day cricket.

“Others will follow in their footsteps. And why shouldn’t we unearth another Gemaal Hussain, who was virtually unknown when we signed him and benefitted hugely from working with our coaching staff?

“James Fuller will have the same opportunity when he arrives from New Zealand where he is already rated a huge talent.

"We have also signed Will Gidman as an all-rounder and I would expect at least four more new players to be brought in during the winter.

“There will then be a lot of interest in how we perform next season and whatever happens we would anticipate having a team who will only get better.”