Tuesday 5 April 2016 14:45, UK
Gareth Roderick is hopeful Gloucestershire can flourish at a new-look County Ground to follow up last season's one-day heroics.
Roderick will captain their County Championship team this season, with Michael Klinger taking over in the limited-overs formats, and the wicketkeeper batsman is relishing his new challenge.
Gloucestershire won the Royal London One-Day Cup last year, and the county are looking for further success on and off the field.
Much has changed in recent years at the County Ground, with a £6m redevelopment needed to keep the ground on the international list, and new permanent floodlights have recently been erected.
Roderick says the changes have added to the positivity around the club, and he hopes there will be a big improvement in their four-day form in 2016.
"We're making strides on and off the field to move in the right direction as a club," Roderick told Sky Sports News HQ.
"I feel like we are doing that quite well, and hopefully the presence of these (floodlights) - you can see them for miles around - will help draw in bigger crowds for T20 on Friday nights.
"The captaincy is going to be a challenge. The lads in the changing room have been real good so far. It's going to be a learning curve but it's a challenge I am looking forward to taking on and hopefully be successful in this year.
"We've known for a couple of years we've been a decent one-day side and I think we are geared up to do well in both white-ball formats. Hopefully we can get back to Lord's to defend our crown."
Changes to the domestic structure mean only one team will be promoted from Division Two this season, but Roderick remains hopeful his side will be capable of mounting a challenge despite only finishing sixth in 2015.
"Of course it is going to make things tougher, but we're just going to take it one week at a time starting with Essex on Sunday. We had a good win down there last year, so hopefully we'll do it again and start the season with a bang.
"We're trying to be competitive in all formats. People will probably say that our skill set is more suited to the one-day game but the guys have played enough four-day cricket to know the game. Hopefully we can challenge for that top three, put a few wins together and at the end of the season you never know where you will end up."
Until Klinger arrives, Gloucestershire will have another Australian - Cameron Bancroft - as their overseas player and the Western Australia batsman is confident he will be able to adapt to English conditions.
Bancroft made his Twenty20 international debut in January after impressing in the Sheffield Shield, where he was the seventh highest run scorer, and Big Bash League.
He said: "It's a great opportunity to bat in conditions over here. You couldn't ask for a more challenging time than playing first-class cricket in England in April and May.
"As a batter all I want to do is go out and score hundreds, score as many runs as I can, and that will be the main focus for me. Maxy [Klinger] has done brilliantly for Gloucestershire the last few years and hopefully I can get the ball rolling."
