Holder making early impact at Worcestershire

LONDON, England (CMC):

Worcestershire head coach Alan Richardson says seasoned West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder is already making an impact on the playing group, even without a ball bowled in the new County Championship season starting today.

The West Midlands club announced last week that the 32-year-old Holder, a former West Indies captain, would feature at New Road for the first five matches of their Division One campaign.

“Jason arrived Tuesday morning from the West Indies, and he has already practised with us at Kidderminster,” Richardson said.

“He was really keen to get out there and meet the players and the staff, and that has been great.

He continued: “He has already talked a lot of cricket with the boys and got around the lads, which I think is massively important for us.

“We were so fortunate the last couple of years with Azhar Ali, who has captained his country, and now with Jason we have got the same.”

Holder arrived at Worcestershire with a Test career comprising 64 matches, 157 wickets at 29 runs apiece, and 2 797 runs, also at an average of 29.

He turned out in two first-class games for his native Barbados Pride in the West Indies Championship last month, scoring 110 runs from three innings and grabbing 11 wickets with his medium pace.

Holder raised a few eyebrows last December when he turned down a central contract from Cricket West Indies before also opting out of the two-Test tour of Australia.

At Worcestershire, Holder will team up with New Zealand fast bowler Nathan Smith, who arrived Easter Monday, and Richardson believes the pair will be a definite boost for the club amid a challenging international environment.

“Trying to find overseas players is probably a lot harder than 20-30 years ago with franchise cricket, and this year we’ve got the added complication of a T20 World Cup,” he explained.

“Jason was really keen. He has been playing for Barbados and played quite a lot of four-day cricket recently.

“He was keen to continue, and then going into the World Cup with the West Indies.

“With Nathan, we had heard so many good things about him as a character and, with Jason, glowing references about how he is off the park as well.”

He added: “It feels like we’ve got a real nice mix. We’ve got Jason, who has played a lot of cricket and travelled the world and captained his country, knows what it is all about and is just excited to get out there and play some cricket.”

Worcestershire will take on Warwickshire at Edgbaston.