ALAN Richardson believes a fit and firing Matthew Waite will help with the ‘balance and quality’ of his Worcestershire side ahead of the upcoming County Championship season.
Waite has impressed at New Road since making a permanent move to the Pears following an initial loan spell from Yorkshire.
The 29-year-old featured in 21 of 28 County Championship matches during the last two seasons.
He scored 998 runs at an average of 34.41 and picked up 45 wickets across those matches.
And Worcestershire head coach Richardson hopes Waite can put his injury setbacks behind him with the start of the 2025 season on the horizon.
Richardson said: “Looking over the two seasons, Waitey has done really well. He was someone we were really hopeful of, someone with a really high ceiling, who probably didn’t have the opportunities at Yorkshire.
“They are a different sort of squad than we have at times and we just saw it as a real opportunity.
“Matthew will be the first to admit he has had some injury setbacks at times but I think a lot of that would be that he didn’t always have those opportunities to play either.
“It is just great wait to watch him flourish and play as well as he has done for Worcestershire and have those opportunities.
“When we have Matthew available for selection, it really helps with the balance and quality of our side.”
Last season, Waite hit five sixes in a single over against Birmingham Bears in the T20 Blast, showing his worth in white-ball cricket.
And Richardson believes the all-rounder has the ability to bat higher up the order if required.
Richardson added: “Something for him to aim at is to continually try and play as much cricket for us, because we know that will be of huge benefit to us, because he has such a huge impact on the games.
“He is a genuine all-rounder, can make an impact with bat and ball, and it is important for him to try and stay on top of that.
“He has been making a really big effort with the physical side of his game, which has been great to watch, because he knows how important it is for him and for us really.
“We knew there was a lot of ability there with his batting and, when the new coaching staff came into Yorkshire, just before he left, they considered him to be a batter who bowled a little bit, and I think Matthew’s career up to that date was probably more of a bowling all-rounder.
“But I think we’ve seen he is a genuine all-rounder. We take great pride in batting as deep as we can so Matthew at times has had to bat at seven or eight but I have no doubt he has the quality and the ability to bat higher than that.
“He did that for Yorkshire and it just shows the quality and strength we have with our batting which is something we take great pride in and we know is a really important part of the balance of our side for us to try and be as successful as possible.”
