FORMER Pears pace ace Alan Richardson has revealed his delight at returning to New Road where he admits he played the best cricket of his career.
Richardson enjoyed a golden spell where he picked up more than 250 County Championship wickets in four seasons before moving to Warwickshire as head bowling coach.
He achieved one of the highlights of his career when he was named a Wisden Cricketer Of The Year in 2012 and has now returned to New Road as part of the restructured coaching set-up.
“The opportunity to come back is really exciting,” said Richardson. “We have got an exciting group of players and for me, it brings back such happy memories.
“It is a really great place to come back and work. I got really excited driving up to Malvern College for the first day back.
“I’ve come back to familiar surroundings and know a lot of people who have really made me feel welcome.”
The modest Richardson, when viewing his playing career at Worcestershire, said: “Batsman were just unlucky against me when I played here!
“I played my best cricket here, without a shadow of a doubt, and it’s where I enjoyed my cricket the most. I was really fortunate to be given the chance to play here. We all know the beautiful surroundings but the club itself is such a nice club to come and play at.
“It helped me feel really relaxed and really confident in what I was doing.”
In terms of the Wisden award, Richardson said: “It was a massive honour. I started my career having dreams and aspirations… playing for your country, and winning awards and trophies.
“My career hadn’t quite panned out that way although playing first class cricket was a real honour and privilege to do in itself.
“I’ve a lot of things to thank Worcestershire for and that was one of them, to give me the opportunity. I probably didn’t do everything that I was hoping to do (in my career) but to get that award was amazing.”