Radlett first team kick off their Premier League campaign this year with a new captain, but Fraser Crawford is a more than familiar face around the club.

Hard-hitting opener Fraser has been a fixture at the top of our batting order since joining the club in 2011 and is taking his first steps into captaincy with previous skipper Tom Jenkins stepping down.

Fraser said: "I was born and grew up in Zimbabwe and came over to England in 2009 when I was 18, I had initial ambitions to try and pursue cricket as a career, it didn't quite go the way I wanted it to and I wasn't convinced whether I wanted to go down that route so I ended up going to university and I've been at Radlett pretty much ever since.

"When I first came over I fell into the category of an overseas player and Shane Burger was the longstanding overseas player that was in the 1s so I played the first the couple of years in the 2s and played the cup games for the 1s where the categories were relaxed, but pretty much as soon as I qualified as a local player I've played for the first team, and we've done pretty well over a number of years, we've always been there or thereabouts.

"Now taking on the captaincy it is the first time I've had that responsibility and I'm really looking forward to it. Tom Jenkins had been skipper for the last 3 or 4 years, but I think he wouldn't mind me saying he wasn't enjoying it and was beginning to feel it was affecting his own game as a wicketkeeper/batsman so we met as a leadership group halfway through last season and he said he would be happy to step down if there was suitable person to come in. So rather unofficially I captained through the last few games of last season.

"I was then asked to take the job for 2024 and I think I'm at the point in my cricketing career and my life when I'm able to take on the role and hopefully make a decent job of it. There is a good group of guys who know me well, the club knows me well so I thought it was a good opportunity to take the reins and try to bring maybe a slightly different brand of cricket to Radlett.

"I want us to be very competitive but I want to make sure everyone enjoys their Saturday afternoon, we'll be playing to win, playing hard and doing it with a smile on our face.
"As captain there will be a fair amount of discussions to have around the team as to who bats where, who bowls when, but I've got a lot of senior knowledgeable players around me like Dom Chatfield and Kabir Toor to offer that support, I'll be picking their brains and getting their input and captaincy will be somewhat easier when you have that experience around you.

"I'll take the lead and make the decisions but it's really important to me that you take on board what other people think. I'll go with my gut instinct on most occasions but if I'm not sure I'll reach out to Kabs or Dom or Jenks."

Last season we finished third in the Premier League and Fraser is embracing the task of going better than that this time around. "It's a challenge, it's never easy, and it looks like it's going to be a stronger league this season but I'm looking forward to it," he said.

"Where Radlett's very different to a lot of the other clubs in the Premier League is that we pride ourselves on not paying players. We have a group of senior players here, with Kabir Toor the prime example, plus myself, Tom Jenkins and Dom Chatfield to name just a few who have never been paid to play here. We play at Radlett because the facilities are great, the club's successful we enjoy each other's company and as a result we want to turn up and enjoy our cricket.

"Some other teams in the Premier League pay 7 or 8 players in the team, so for us we want to make sure people are playing hard and enjoying their cricket and hopefully that will lead to success.

"Batting-wise we've always had a core group of 3 or 4 players and Dave Burnell, the young Hertfordshire player has come in and added to that but we have maybe struggled a bit with depth and for the coming season we will bring in a couple of new players to add to the batting line-up.

"For the bowling attack this year we're bringing in MD Nidheesh an Indian overseas player who plays at Ranji Trophy level over there so we have high expectations for him, he's a seam bowler who can bat. We have Noah Cornwell, who has just signed for Middlesex so we're not sure how much we'll see of him, Randheep Sanghera, another longstanding Radlett pace bowler, Kabir is a brilliant spinner and we also have Anthony Hill who is an experienced medium-pacer so all in all it's looking good.

"We've hopefully brought in the right players for balance so we can go forward with a strong squad of 11-14 players. Hopefully we've got good competition for places and can allow people to play freely, play with confidence but also know that there are people playing in the 2s that can come in, so the competition will hopefully bring out the best in everyone.

"Last season we lost some games we shouldn't have, a couple of games didn't go our way because of the weather, I don't think luck was always on our side but we also threw away a couple of games we should have won. Of the 2 different formats we struggled a bit more in the short form games with the pink ball and did better in the declaration games."

With other teams in the Premier League also strengthening, Fraser is expecting the title race to be more competitive than ever this time round. He said "Harpenden who came second last year are a strong team, Potters Bar are always strong, they've got a lot of players including the likes of Rishi Patel who plays for Leicestershire, Totteridge always have a strong team and are able to bring in some really good players. Even the likes of Shenley who are recently promoted have brought in some good players and an Australian Big Bash players as their overseas, and Bishop Stortford have lined up some good overseas players so they will be strong too. I think we'll see more competition for that top four this year, it's going to be a good season.

"On a sunny day you can't get a better place to watch cricket than Radlett, it's warm and welcoming, you can have drinks outside and some food, my family always come to watch and it's got that feeling now where people come down with their kids and enjoy the afternoon.

"I'd love to encourage families to come down and watch on a Saturday because their kids play in the junior teams and they'd like them to progress all the way through to the first team. If we create an environment where the kids and families are welcomed and looked after it hopefully creates opportunities for people like Josh De Caires and Noah Cornwell to some all the way through from youth level at Radlett to make it as a professional while playing a lot of good cricket for us in the process."