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Jeremy Snape is New Leicestershire Captain

Jeremy Snape has been appointed as captain for the 2006 season by Leicestershire County Cricket Club.

He succeeds the South African batsman H. D. Ackerman, who was controversially brought over last year on a Kolpak registration to be captain. Ackerman says he is going to concentrate on his batting this year.

Jeremy Snape is 32 and was born in Stoke-on-Trent. He is a good middle order batsman, with 3 first-class centuries to his name, and a very good off-spin bowler.

He played for Northamptonshire between 1992 and 1997, and for Gloucestershire from 1999 to 2002, once being voted their Player of the Year. He joined Leicestershire in 2003. He has played in 10 Limited Over Internationals for England.

Jeremy has a degree in sports psychology from Loughborough University, and is widely credited as being the brains behind Leicestershire’s Twenty20 Final win in 2004.

His appointment comes a few weeks after top man James Whitaker was replaced by the former Leicestershire opening batsman Tim Boon, who has been an important part of the successful England set-up.

I suspect, and certainly hope, that the new appointments will lead to a change of attitude on the field. Last year there was an irritating negativity, when the height of the team’s ambition from the start of every match seemed to be to avoid losing. Not the sort of stuff to enthuse anybody.

All that, hopefully, will now change, and Leicestershire should have a good season, but most importantly, a positive attitude.