Tim Boon made a smooth transition from international to county coaching and his side responded. They had a trophy – the Twenty20 Cup – as proof of their improvement and used their one-day skills to mount some thrilling – and successful – Championship run chases. Four wins in their last six games brought a creditable fourth place. The improvement was achieved with limited input from overseas players – Dinesh Mongia missed six games while away with India and Adam Griffith and Mansoor Amjad broke down. Instead Boon freshened up his squad and lowered the average age with some shrewd bargain buys. But it was the experience of HD Ackerman – 1,804 Championship runs before he returned to South Africa – and Paul Nixon, with his jack-in-the-box energy, that gave Leicestershire mid-season impetus. Boon’s next tasks are to translate Twenty20 success into the longer one-day competitions and to retain the services of Stuart Broad. Potentially a match-winning fast bowler, Broad was the cricket writers’ young player of the year and won his first one-day international cap but that only excited the other counties. He is under contract for another season and, despite rumours of a move to Surrey, Boon says he is staying put.

Paul Bolton The Wisden Cricketer