Durham and Kent set high bar for 2027 - Richardson

Worcestershire head coach Alan Richardson says he does not envisage many changes to the squad over the winter as they try to emulate the "incredibly high" standard for promotion set this year by Durham and Kent.

The Pears went into the last four rounds of matches of the County Championship with an outside chance of going up behind runaway leaders Durham.

However, defeats by Kent and Northamptonshire ended their hopes of a return to Division One.

They finished fifth, 45 points adrift of second-placed Kent with Durham, boosted by the return to domestic cricket of former England captain Ben Stokes, another 47 points clear at the top.

"I think Durham set an incredibly high bar and one that all teams should try and achieve," Richardson told BBC Hereford and Worcester.

"The resources they had and a few bonuses - the fact that Ben Stokes came back and started playing for them - but even without him they had the strongest squad and the strongest team and they proved that.

"I think that's the bar that teams who want to get promoted want to try to hit and that would be incredibly tough and take a lot of hard work but that's something that we should be at.

"Kent deservedly went up and those are the sort of levels that we need to hit and certainly I think this squad is capable of doing that."

Richardson said he has already started to work towards the winter and how things might look in 2027, but added his squad was already fairly settled.

Sussex batter George Thomas will help fill the gap left by the retired Rob Jones, while Harry Darley's departure has been compensated by the arrival of Australian-born seamer Sam Greer.

George O'Connor has stepped up from the second XI and will have more opportunities next summer.

"Not many changes," Richardson said. "We believe we have a really good squad, we have a real nice mix of senior players and some really good up-and-coming young players and a nice little group in the middle - [all-rounder] Ethan Brooks, [seamers] Ben Allison and Adam Finch.

"We have to keep making sure we are giving ourselves the best chance because we want to be in Division One and we want to be qualifying for T20 and 50-over knockout games.

"That's incredibly difficult."

In terms of the overseas slots, Pakistan leg-spinner Usama Mir will be classed as a homegrown player from 2027, with Richardson hinting they may look towards strengthening the batting next season having had bowling all-rounder Beyers Swanepoel at New Road in 2026.

"Beyers came in and made an impact, but we feel like Adam Finch, George O'Connor, Sam Greer, and Ben Gibbon will be wanting one of those slots.

"So we need to have a look at that and make sure we have some ideas of where we want to go but we have to make sure the right people are available."