Worcestershire's Ben Cox tells of tour de farce Down Under
Having been deported from Australia and then starred for the MCC in Abu Dhabi, few cricketers can claim to have had as eventful a winter as Ben Cox.
Now the 25-year-old wicketkeeper, from Wordsley, has sights set on a successful summer at Worcestershire as they target promotion from Division Two of the County Championship.
A close season of change at New Road saw Daryl Mitchell replaced by Joe Leach as captain following last year's third place finish. Long admired as a fertile breeding ground for young talent, the ambition at Worcestershire is real, to the extent the phrase "team with potential" has been banned from the dressing room.
"There are a lot of players here who have played a lot of cricket and we need to start producing results," said Cox. "We can't keep being a young, promising side.
"The change in captaincy was a shock to everyone. No-one saw it coming but there has been no friction.
"Leachy wants us to lose that young tag. He wants us to take responsibility and have freedom on the park.
"We are grown-ups, we are men. We can't be afraid to make mistakes but when we do, we can't pass things off as learning.
"We need to be consistent and winning games consistently."
Cox is aiming to be at the forefront of any success this season and the man dubbed "Mr Reliable" by director of cricket Steve Rhodes certainly has a few tales to tell after a winter which began in traumatic fashion.
Having signed up to play for Adelaide Stars, Cox was one of several county players turned back from the Australian border by by immigration officials when it emerged they had the wrong visas.
"I had packed my suitcase and was ready to move my life to Australia for five months," he said. "For it all to come crashing down in the space of 24 hours was a shock to the system, it is fair to say.
"It was 80 hours from door to door. A 24-hour flight there. I got interrogated for five-and-a-half hours.
"Then I was in a holding cell for the best part of 24 hours and sent on the first flight back out of Adelaide the following day. It was not ideal."
The winter at least ended better than it started, with Cox and Worcestershire team-mate Joe Clarke included in the MCC squad for last month's Champion County match in the Middle East.
"It was a brilliant experience," he said. "Getting back now I just want to get going.
"There is this awkward period now where everyone else is starting and we are having to wait another week. We just can't wait to get going now."
