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"I am Dan Bowyer, 1^st XI captain of Wolverhampton Cricket Club, who play in the Birmingham Premier League. This is my first year as captain and I was appointed back in November. The first thing that I noticed when I took over was that the role is far more time consuming than I anticipated. At the level we play, people are always trying to poach our players due to our excellent junior section and ability to produce players. We do not have a large budget and therefore can’t compete financially with some clubs. Player loyalty is not great in league cricket in our area and there are players who will chase the money. It is important that we are financially responsible and give the homegrown players a chance. However, throwing in a young team would do nothing for them to get pumped every week so we need to bring a few players in, including an overseas, that they can learn from. We now have to hope that it is enough and that other clubs take on this responsibility and begin to produce some players of their own.

The most enjoyable part of captaining, or playing, is winning so I am looking forward to getting the season started and get the first win of the season. At the same time I have a big job on my hands to manage the different characters in our squad and make sure we are all pulling in the same direction. In regards to the characters we have, I would say that the biggest badger is Jack Biddulph. He’s a massively talented young spin bowling all rounder, but I’ve never known anybody talk cricket and tell everybody how he has faired against every player that gets mentioned. He will know whether he got them out, how he got them out etc and then he’ll make sure to tell everybody! There is a real blend, which makes for a great atmosphere. There are lads who get sucked into dodgy fashions; Chris Russell and lads who are only ever in a tracksuit; Aneesh Kapil. Older boys proving they are still down with the kids; Rich Howitt, Mike Smith. Guys with bigger wash bags than kit bags; Simon Lycett, and lads who don’t know where the shower is! There are laid back guys, and intense guys. Come match day though, when we go out on the field (and in the bar afterwards!) we will all be one unit and this will stand us in good stead.

By bringing on these young players and making Wolverhampton CC a club that they wish to play for without the lure of making a fast buck for a couple of years, we are ensuring that we are making the club sustainable. The idea that lads who join at the age of 7, can go on to be future first team players gives the club a sense of belonging where coaches, players and former players can all say they have contributed to the ongoing success of the club. We have proved this in the past when we had a couple of memorable wins on the same weekend a couple of seasons ago. It was the first weekend of the 2009 season and we had a league game against Himley away followed by an away trip to Ockbrook and Borrowash in the National KO. We won both in the final few balls against teams that were expecting to roll us. What made it even more special was that we fielded teams of virtually all home grown players, and we were playing against opposition with big budgets and many ex pros. It gave us a lot of belief for the season. The format is 55 overs each side in the Birmingham League and we are all comfortable with it. The way the point’s system works is that there is always something to play for and there is no obvious advantage or disadvantage to batting or bowling first. I like the fact that the toss is a deciding factor in the game. Its is a tough league with a lot of hard cricket against upcoming, current and ex pro’s as well as very good league cricketers. The main goal of the season is to finish as high as we can, go into every game to get as many points as we can and play some enjoyable cricket."