Paul Nixon makes Leicestershire promotion promise despite poor 2019 season

The Foxes won their opening County Championship game at Sussex but it was merely the precursor for a 13-game winless run

Head coach Paul Nixon has promised long-suffering supporters: “We will get Leicestershire back”.

A seven-wicket victory over Sussex in their first match meant 2019 could not have begun more promisingly for Leicestershire.

All-rounder Tom Taylor picked up 10 wickets in the match, a continuation of his form from the end of the previous season, new opener Hassan Azad looked a real find, senior batsmen Paul Horton, Colin Ackermann and Mark Cosgrove appeared in good form, and with Mohammad Abbas, the taker of 50 championship wickets in 10 matches last season, still to come, it appeared the Foxes were going to have a competitive season.

No-one will need reminding, however, that Hove was the high point. No further red-ball matches were won and although there were some fine winning performances in the shorter formats, Leicestershire finished at the bottom of their respective tables.

Taylor picked up a season-ending injury, Abbas was not the force of 2018 and the senior batters did not make the weight of runs needed to set up winning positions. Only Azad, with almost 1,200 championship runs, could be described as an unqualified success.

And while finances at the club remain tight Nixon insists he is genuinely optimistic about the prospects for 2020.

“It’s been a frustrating season because a couple more wins in both comps and we’d have been right up there, and then energy and adrenalin would have kicked in and dragged us along,” said Nixon.

“We didn’t get enough hundreds and five-wicket hauls, simple as that.

“We have a small squad, we have to make financial cuts, and we’ve had to ask a lot from the players: realistically we’ve been picking from the same group of 14 or 15 every game.

^{Hassan Azad's runs was one of the few positives in an otherwise poor campaign}

“That’s tough on them physically and mentally: we saw in the last game, Lancashire arrived and picked very good players you forgot they even had.

“Injuries are always going to be huge in those circumstances and losing Taylor so early was a massive blow, it really was. He was taking wickets, scoring runs and really starting to blossom, people were talking about him for a Lions tour.

“Abbas found it tougher this year, he’s played so much cricket over the last two years, I think he felt the toll of that, but he gave it his all for us.

“Other guys have been in and out with injuries, but we were ‘in’ most games. We showed promise, grit and determination, and our younger players have got a lot of good experience.

“We know we have to get better, guys know what they have to work on. We have to be fitter, as a unit – players in a small squad who want to play all forms have to be supremely fit, and we need more consistency.

“We will get Leicestershire back. It’s always harder without finance, but we can create gold dust, as we’ve seen with Hassan Azad. We will hit next year hard and I’m already excited about it.”

The reshaping of the squad has already begun, with confirmation that youngsters Harry Dearden (two years), Sam Evans (one year) and Harry Swindells (two years), along with fast bowler Dieter Klein (one year), have signed contract extensions.

Senior players Neil Dexter, Aadil Ali and Ateeq Javid have not been offered new contracts and will leave the club.

Courtesy of the ECB reporters network