Amiss: “The Club are proud of them”

Dennis Amiss has spoken of his great pride at seeing the Bears lift the County Championship for an eighth time.

A true custodian of Warwickshire cricket, Amiss was speaking at the Champions Dinner where he addressed the audience following a Q&A with host Nick Knight.

The legendary figure – who was club captain, chairman of the cricket committee and chief executive before selector and deputy chairman roles with the ECB – knows all about winning after a 28-year career that was littered with titles and individual accolades. 

“They must be feeling pretty good as the County Championship is the hardest one to win,” Amiss said. “It’s continuous, the toughest and the one everyone wants. It’s always nice to win other titles but the Championship is the one. 

“They’ve got a really good side and Mark’s (Robinson) made some really good signings with Danny Briggs and Tim Bresnan. I think that’s made the difference and brought experience in those departments. They’re a young and similar side to ’94 except Brian Lara.

“They’ve got to be proud of themselves and the club are proud of them. I’ve always said to the players there’s nothing better than winning because I know what it was like.

“I’ve been round long enough to know that when you’re losing and you’re on that roundabout it’s hard to get off sometimes. But when you’re the opposite you try and stay on and work hard at it. 

“I said to the players that I don’t want to do any preaching or anything, but enjoy it as next year there will be other counties challenging you. The bar has been set by you this year and they’ll want to get to that bar and knock you off.You’ve got to go again and only by working hard do you do that.

“The coaches will set targets and say what have you accomplished this year and what are you going to do next year to make yourself a better player. There’s no reason why they can’t win it again next year.”