Captain Dent hails Dawson’s impact ahead of 2020 season
16 March 2020
Gloucestershire captain Chris Dent believes the arrival of Richard Dawson in 2015 as Head Coach kickstarted the Club’s recent successes and helped him develop into the player he is today.
“It’s hard to pinpoint any one thing that he did and does, but when he first came in, he did bring quite a lot of energy with him,” Chris said.
“In 2015, we had Maxy (Michael Klinger) who was a very important character in the dressing room. Daws (Richard Dawson) coming in at that time just added excitement and belief to the campaign and that’s why we were so successful that year.”
Three years into Dawson’s tenure at the Club, the First-class and One-Day captaincy was passed on to Dent as his predecessor Michael Klinger took time away from the sport to be with his family in a trying time.
Speaking on his term as captain Chris said:
“I never thought I’d be a captain. My personality and the way I do things isn’t like your typical captain who might be a loud person naturally. The team at the time was made up of a lot of young players and it fell into my lap, but I knew I would do everything I could to benefit the team.
I’ve enjoyed my time as captain. It’s obviously come with challenges but we have a great group of players so it’s actually been relatively stress free.”
The Dent and Dawson duo led Gloucestershire to promotion to Division One of the County Championship for the first time in 15 years. Dent attributes the relationship the two have as an important aspect of the team’s success.
“I think we’re both very different characters, he’s from Yorkshire and a bit more shouty and intense than I am whereas I’m the complete opposite to that. It’s a great relationship because we challenge each other’s ideas and work off one other.
I believe the discussions we’ve had have really helped us and are some of the reasons why we were successful last year. The culture of our team is also very important to us, we’re not perfect at it but it’s something we are working towards.
We are putting together a very good squad for the future and I don’t see why we can’t push for trophies. We’re always there or there abouts in the white ball game and we’d like to continue that. In four day, obviously we want to consolidate our position in Division One but teams like Essex have shown that you can go up there and with the right attitude you can compete.”
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