Wednesday 6 April 2016 10:38, UK
Michael di Venuto hopes Surrey will prove successful on their, and his, return to Division One of the County Championship.
Di Venuto spent a dozen years as a player in English cricket, representing Derbyshire and Durham, and he returns to coach Surrey this summer after four years as part of the Australia coaching set-up.
Surrey won the Division Two title last summer, but spent big over the winter and hopes are high of a positive campaign with the likes of Mark Footitt and Ravi Rampaul boosting their squad.
"I'm really looking forward to it," Di Venuto told Sky Sports News HQ. "We've got an excellent squad, some highly talented youngsters and some excellent older players. It's a really good mix and I'm looking forward to seeing how the guys play.
"We've got the squad to play some really good cricket, and like I said before I am really looking forward to seeing the guys get out there, seeing how they go about their work.
"Coming from a high performance environment with the Australian team, back into the county scene which I have been away from for about four years, I'll be looking to bring some of that into our dressing room. Hopefully it will help improve the players and help them become the best players they can be."
Yorkshire, coached by fellow-Australian Jason Gillespie, are solid favourites to win the title for the third successive year, and Di Venuto can understand that, but he feels there is plenty of strength across much of the top flight.
"I think they are the team to beat. They have played some fantastic cricket over the last few years, obviously well led, but there's a number of teams in Division One, if you look across the list, who are quite impressive," he added.
"As normal in Division One, it's going to be tough cricket. It will certainly be a challenge for our guys, coming up from Division Two, but I think we have the squad to mix it with some of those teams."
