EVERGREEN Daryl Mitchell has revealed his pride to be following in the footsteps of a long line of successful Worcestershire CCC opening batsmen.
The 33-year-old used to watch Tim ‘TC’ Curtis, the club’s current vice-chairman, during the glory years of the late 1980s and early 1990s as a youngster.
He is also conscious of the impact made by the likes of New Zealand star Glenn Turner and Alan Ormrod in the county’s history.
Badsey-born Mitchell is continuing that tradition and this summer scored seven centuries in 14 Championship matches and was voted the club’s Player’s Player Of The Year.
He said: “Am I conscious of following a long line of successful openers? I’ve probably come to notice it more this year because I’ve ticked off a few milestones.
“I’ve been sent various emails of lists of leading run-scorers and century-makers for the club and things like that.
“To go past some of the names that are on there is fantastic really and being a Worcestershire lad and following the county, I know all about the history and the great players we’ve had here.”
Mitchell used to watch the prolific Curtis and now the roles are reversed with the latter often viewing the current county opener’s time in the middle.
“I know all about that era and how much success they had and obviously there was some great players here at that time and before,” said Mitchell.
Mitchell averaged 55.04 this summer to take his career average in first class cricket back above the 40 mark.
He said: “Since I started, I’ve always set 40 as where I want to be each and every year, 40 and above. This year, I was considerably above that which was nice.
“But to get the career average above 40 is quite important to me and to be considered a good batter, a top first class cricketer, you need to be averaging over 40, particularly over a long period.”