‘For years they mocked us’ – how Leics earned their first ever promotion

“For years they laughed at us, and they mocked us. They’re not laughing anymore.”

Alfonso Thomas, the Leicestershire head coach, is stood in the home changing room at Grace Road, his voice breaking, as he congratulates his side for earning promotion to Division One of the County Championship.

They have not dined at the top table of English cricket for 23 years. During that time, they plumbed the depths of the domestic game. They finished bottom of Division Two eight times, failing to win at all in four of those seasons.

It got so bad, some were questioning whether Leicestershire should be a first-class side at all. Now, they are the runaway leaders of Division Two, earning their first ever promotion.

It all starts in the Durham canteen in September 2023.

Thomas, made interim coach of Leicestershire with former England batter James Taylor, is sat having lunch during a County Championship match.

Thomas and Taylor had led them to a thrilling One-Day Cup triumph earlier in the month, picking up the pieces after Paul Nixon’s unceremonious mid-season sacking.

“All the players came in together. They were chatting together, and sat down to eat together,” Thomas told the Talking Foxes podcast.

“It sounds small, but I thought then ‘we might have something’.”

“He [Thomas] is so genuine,” Richard Rae, BBC Radio Leicester’s long-serving commentator told us.

“It comes from the heart. In the past, players were almost overloaded with information. He’s tried to absorb the pressure, and let the players go out and play, and enjoy themselves.”

The Foxes had been steadily improving before Thomas took over, becoming a mid-table team in Division Two after their nadir in the middle of the last decade.

They famously went 37 matches over 933 days without a Championship win between September 2012 and June 2015.

Lewis Hill, who scored the winning runs against Essex to end that run, made 88 this week in their draw against Gloucestershire which sealed promotion.

After 20 years of struggle, and amid wider debates about a restructure of the county game – and therefore a reduction in first-class teams – the Foxes were very much in the firing line.

“People were saying, ‘what is the point of Leicestershire?'” Rae added.

Since then Leicestershire have very much proved their worth, developing young England talent like Rehan Ahmed, who scored five swashbuckling centuries this season, and pace bowler Josh Hull.

Their One-Day Cup triumph, and now promotion, is a shot in the arm for smaller counties.

The final piece of the puzzle was strong recruitment.

Logan van Beek has made vital contributions with bat and ball, but perhaps most significant of them all, was adding Peter Handscomb to the team, and making him club captain.

The calm, composed Australian has added vital runs, but many of the players this season have said he has given them “clarity”.

“Pete as a captain this season has been really consistent,” all-rounder Ian Holland, who has taken 35 wickets and scored 470 runs this campaign, said.

The Foxes, through recruitment, hard work and good coaching, have created a side greater than the sum of its parts.

“I think what’s stood out is that it’s been a collective effort,” Rae added.

“There’s nobody from Leicestershire in the top 10 run scorers, but then everyone has made a substantial contribution. Same with the wicket takers, three players have 30 wickets, but nobody has 50.”

“A lot of different things have been put right,” added Holland, who joined from Hampshire last summer. “You could tell the club was on an upward trajectory.

“It’s really come together nicely. There’s a great combination of players with a lot of experience, that really want it, and younger guys coming through. It’s just clicked.”

In the end, the Foxes have stormed to promotion, winning six games this season and losing just once. No other county has done that in either division.

It may have come in anti-climactic fashion on day four against Gloucestershire, with the umpires announcing no more play was possible. Promotion determined by Tannoy rather than bat and ball, but it does not make the achievement any less significant.

From where Leicestershire were, and with fewer resources and a smaller ground than other counties, to achieve promotion is no mean feat.

The Foxes are not done yet, too. They are determined to win Division Two, and get their first four-day silverware since 1998.

“We focus on winning every game of cricket we play,” Thomas added.

“We are turning up to beat Kent next week, we are determined to go and get ourselves a trophy.”

Perhaps the sweetest part of all of this for Leicestershire staff, players, and fans, is that the perennial underdogs of the English game, ‘little old Leicestershire’ as they have ironically referred themselves as in the past, are back in the big time.

“I’m just happy that we have given the fans of Leicestershire the feeling that they will watch Division One cricket last year,” Thomas said.

“We wanted these players to challenge themselves, and be the best version of themselves. It is our jobs to open their minds to how good they can be.