BEN Cox and Brett D’Oliveira have been appointed Worcestershire’s new vice-captains in red ball and white ball cricket respectively for the 2019 campaign.
Wicketkeeper Cox will be number two to skipper Joe Leach for the Specsavers County Championship campaign and any other first class action.
D’Oliveira will be second in command to Leach during the Royal London One-Day Cup and for the Vitality Blast to Moeen Ali.
First-team coach Alex Gidman has confidence in Cox and D’Oliveira to lead the side anytime Leach or Moeen are unavailable, with the latter expected to have a busy international summer with England. However, equally as important will be their experience and know-how in providing support.
“Joe is still the club captain and Moeen is the Vitality Blast captain but we’ve named Ben Cox as the red ball vice-captain and Brett D’Oliveira as the white ball vice-captain. They will make up our leadership group for the 2019 season,” said Gidman.
“With Ben, it’s good to have a set of eyes behind the stumps particularly with Joe either bowling or at mid-off. He has played a lot of cricket now and sees himself as a leader within the group for lots of different reasons.
“Ben is an important member of the squad and, to have him maturing to the point now where we are comfortable that he can lead the team if Joe is not available, is a really positive thing for us.
“It’s very similar with Brett in the white ball cricket. Moeen has an extremely busy year coming up international-wise. When Mo is available, it’s always exciting to have him play for us and the lads love having him around. Dolly captained really well in the white ball cricket last year, he is a natural leader and the guys all listen to him.
“We are lucky we’ve got a couple of guys in Ben and Brett who we feel are capable of stepping into those roles when the two captains aren’t available.”