HIMLEY’S new era in the Birmingham and District Premier Cricket League begins on Saturday in the safe hands of a familiar face.

Former captain Greg Wright is back in the hot-seat he filled for six years as they entertain one of the Premier Division’s traditionally stronger sides in Knowle and Dorridge (12noon).

With no overseas player this year at Stourbridge Road, Himley are focusing on their talented young players and Wright believes there is enough talent within the club to succeed.

The skipper, who was last season’s Banks’ Cricketer of the Year for the Premier Division, said: “We have had a change of direction in how the club is run with people who in the past spent a lot of their time getting sponsorship to fund our overseas player having time to develop the club.

“We will need to show patience but we still have ambitions for a top-half finish and hopefully good runs in cup competitions.

“Now we have more players coming through the junior system whereas before we didn’t and we want to give them opportunities.”

He added: “I’m optimistic for the short and long-term future of the club. It was a conscious decision, financially driven, to go without an overseas’ player, but that’s not to say we’ll never have one in the future.

“But for now we have two young batters in Jamie Harris and Olly Westbury who have been selected for Worcestershire’s academy and some other good young guys coming through.”

The Stourbridge Road captain has urged supporters to patient with the club’s young guns but believes that the older heads of the side will give them plenty of reasons to be cheerful.

“There is experience in the batting with myself, Nathan Round and Chris Tranter, and at full strength our bowling has plenty of experience and historically has plenty of league wickets,” Wright said.

“The younger players have ability and my message to them is ‘back yourselves and age shouldn’t prove too much of a problem.’ “You never quite know how side’s are going to shape up but Knowle and Dorridge have a new captain in David Smith and are always a good side, so it will be a tough test.

“What we have to do is focus on how we can put them under pressure and with the new win-lose format we need to hit the ground running.

“We will respect them, but also have belief in ourselves.”