Alfonso Thomas | 'We're Very Excited To Get Going'

On the eve of the 2024 season, Foxes TV sat down with Head Coach Alfonso Thomas to get his thoughts on Leicestershire’s prospects for the year ahead.

To watch the full interview on Foxes TV, click HERE.

ON HIS EXCITEMENT:

“We’re very excited to get going. It feels like it’s taken forever to get here but it’ll be nice to get out at Headingley and get the first session underway. We can’t wait to get the season started.

“We asked the guys to try and improve themselves as cricketers in the winter, and we believe they have. We’ve asked them to push for batting and bowling slots, which they have. There’s a lot of competition for places.

“A strong squad is going up to Yorkshire, so there will be tough decisions to make but that’s exactly where we want to be. We want guys to push for their place, and if we can get the players competing that will stand us in good stead moving forwards.”

ON HIS BRAND OF CRICKET:

“There’s been a lot of chat about the brand of cricket we want to play. I don’t know if that’s off the back of the (England) Test squad playing an exciting brand of cricket. I would like to say we want to emulate that, but it’s also important we play the kind of game that suits our strengths and more importantly play to our individual strengths.

“We have got guys who can grind it out and guys who can be quite attacking, it’s about finding a balance between the two.

“In terms of what I want to see, we had the odd session last year where things went downhill, so if we can compete better in tough situations and we can combine that fight with the good cricket we played last year, hopefully that will put us on a path.”

ON WORKING WITH JAMES TAYLOR:

“There are times where our approach is quite opposite, but I think we dovetail really nicely. It’s just a combination of ‘Titch’ having the experience of being a batter in county cricket and myself having the experience as a bowler that will hopefully provide the guys with the tools to be successful.

“If you throw Hilly into the mix, the three of us work very well together. We constantly communicate and try to come up with combinations that are best suited to the team. I have no doubt that will continue.”

ON 2023 SUCCESS:

“We did some really good work last year but it’s important we park that. Yes, we have a One Day trophy in the bank and played some good four-day cricket at times, but now it’s about building on it and pushing to be competitive in all the games we play.

“We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. There’s a lot of chat about trying to get to Division One, but as the old cliché goes: let’s take it one game at a time.”

ON THE BALANCE OF THE SQUAD:

“I’m extremely excited about the squad we’ve assembled. We’ve got match-winners in there, and we’ve got experienced county and international players too. Combine that with the youth we have, we’ve got exciting potential.

“The guys will get opportunities throughout the season as we saw last year. We used all of our squad, and our message is ‘you might miss out in the first couple of games, but it’s a long county season.’ It’s important everybody keeps pushing each other because at some point they will play a part for the squad.”

ON EMERGING PLAYERS:

“If the likes of Rishi Patel and Tom Scriven can copy what they did last year, and we get another two or three guys doing what they did, that will put us in a great place as a team and hopefully we can keep moving upwards.”

ON HEADINGLEY MEMORIES:

“We’ve got some fond memories. It was quite interesting that we almost went into that last day to play for the draw but there was a different feeling from some guys that we could win it. We wanted to bat until tea, see where we were at and then push on, which is exactly what we did. Every guy contributed to that win."

ON YORKSHIRE:

“For us, it’s a case of being competitive over the four days. There is hopefully going to be 12 sessions in the game, so if we can win the majority of those sessions hopefully we’ll be on the right end of the result. For now, we’re focussed on winning that first session.

“They are a good side but it’s a fantastic opportunity for us to test the work we’ve done in the winter against one of the favourites to go up.”