IN 2001 Jamie Cox led Somerset to victory in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Cup at Lord’s and second place in the county championship; now 25 years later he is back at the club as chief executive.

“My time back here has gone quickly and it’s been a delight. I wanted to come back because the place means such a lot to me and I was reminded just how much when I got back here.

“It’s been two quite successful years, we’ve been competitive on the field, we’ve managed to integrate the women’s team and effectively the business is ticking over okay,”

“However, there is jeopardy ahead of us which is what excites me in many ways and we have to make sure that the club continues to be at the top table which is going to be quite a challenge, but we’re in a good spot.”

“One of the secret sources of this club is that we generate our own and have a great pathway. Most of the young players who come through are locally born and bred, which is a much cheaper way to run a business. If you look around the ground there are a lot of people who are excited for that reason, they want local players to thrive - we always pride ourselves on finding good talent and developing them, and when Thomas Rew arrives he will be fun too!

“There were several local boys in our 2001 winning team and it’s been a constant theme throughout our existence- the pathway is something that the ECB holds in high regard.”

How are Somerset going to spend the funding from the sale of The Hundred?

“We are clearly now in a fortunate position and this may sound a bit odd but in isolation it’s not a game changer because if I look around the ground which we all love I could spend £20 million really easily upgrading our facility here and it still wouldn’t give us what we need.

“We have to be smart and spend it wisely so we now have to make some decisions .”

Jamie seems to understand how much Somerset CCC means to the town, the county and the wider community of the south west.

“The members are a critical part of our club - look at the number who are here today sat watching - there’s great cricket people in this part of the world.”

“I fell in love with it very quickly 25 years ago and it’s not changed and some of the same people are here.”

“I am the envy of a lot of my peers as not every county enjoys the same level of support that we do. We try to do what we can to make their day as good as we possibly can and a lot of our thinking goes into how we can provide the best service for all formats of cricket and I think we’re slowly improving which is great.

Looking to the future Jamie said: “Let’s hope there are plenty of good times ahead. It’s certainly been a busy couple of years and I’ve really enjoyed it - there will be some humps and bumps going forward which we are aware of but we are a good cricket club in a great cricket place so I think that will hold us in good stead,”