Head Coach Alan Richardson says the togetherness of the Worcestershire squad has been a key factor in this summer’s success, culminating in promotion to Division One of the LV=County Championship.
Worcestershire needed a maximum of two points at the beginning of the current match with Yorkshire at Headingley and have made sure of returning to the top flight for the first time since the 2018 season.
Their success in red-ball cricket follows on from reaching the quarter-finals in the Vitality Blast and Metro Bank One Day Cup.
Richardson said: “We’ve played some really good cricket throughout in red and white ball. It has been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster at times with everything that has gone on.
“But I think all of the lads in the squad have held themselves brilliantly well, have not been distracted, shown some remarkable resilience in terms of the performance and in how they’ve moved forward.
“You hoped that they could go on and achieve the red ball goal we set out at the start of the season, and they deserve it.
“What is the key to a successful season? I don’t think we can point to one thing if I’m honest, but the boys have been really together throughout.
“It feels like we’ve been really focused on trying to achieve certain things, and they came up with how they wanted to play their cricket alongside the coaching staff and how they would behave and conduct themselves throughout the season.
“They’ve been able to do that brilliantly well. They’ve shown a tremendous amount of focus.
“We’ve probably had a bit of luck at times, which we’ve not always had. Certainly, in the red ball game at the start of the year, our task was made a little bit easier with weather conditions.
“But we still had to put in some amazing shifts, which we did against Leicestershire at home and Sussex at home, to either win or save games.
“The togetherness of the group, and whoever has come into that group, has played a key part for me.
“At times, we talked about the toughness of last year and how difficult it was, and the guys have probably learnt a little bit from that.”
Richardson praised the players for not letting the mid-season announcement of several players leaving the club at the end of the season derail their ambitions.
He said: “I think it did have an impact, but the guys ensured the distraction side of it all had a minimal effect.
“It’s full credit to the players who are staying, but also the ones that are not going to be around, that they’ve all bought in and shown a lot of commitment and really put a shift in for us.
“These things can derail you, but the boys should take colossal credit that they’ve dealt with it, they have managed it brilliantly well.
“It wouldn’t be true to say it didn’t affect us at times, but I’m always someone who looks at things and thinks you can dwell on them, and you can let them make a negative impact on you, or you can turn them around and see it as another challenge.
“We get lots of challenges, and they come in different guises and different forms, and that was one of them, but the boys dealt with it brilliantly well.”
