BEN Cox believes he reaped the benefits of the additional work he has put in during the past couple of years after a successful 2014 season behind the stumps at New Road.

Cox earned praised from various quarters for his wicket-keeping including former England and current Essex player James Foster.

He also stepped up to te plate with the bat and scored his maiden County Championship century against Hampshire at New Road.

Cox, currently playing in Australia for Greenvale Kangaroos, said: "I just trained immensely hard. Ross Dewar, our conditioning coach, sums it up. He always tell me how much I've changed over the last year and a half-two years in terms of my work ethic, training, nutrition, everything.

"I think that is particularly with my keeping I reckon, the amount of hours I did in the winter, in sometimes at 6.30am at Malvern College, early with Bumpy (Director of Cricket Steve Rhodes), just getting ahead of the game effectively.

"It has showed this last season that it has helped and I've been rewarded for it.

"What made me do all the extra work? - It was a personal decision. No-one said to me to buck your ideas up, it was only me telling myself 'look, you've got a chance here'.

"I just started with the gym, decided to put on some weight and get a little bit stronger. I thought I wasn't strong enough and then carried on with the work ethic in cricket, my batting, my keeping.

"My intensity has doubled and tripled over the last two years and it has helped my cricket massively."