James Foster helps nurture Pears wicketkeepers

Ben Cox, Alex Milton and Henry Cullen will be put through their paces at various stages of the campaign by Foster who played in seven Tests, 11 ODIs and five T20Is.

Former Essex keeper Foster, who retired at the end of last summer, held a session with Milton and Cullen at New Road on Monday and Black Country-born Cox will join up on his return from playing for the MCC against Surrey in Dubai.

First-team coach Alex Gidman confirmed: “Foster has joined us as one of our support staff and we will see him at various stages throughout the summer to work with our keepers specifically, but also work with the whole group. He is a vastly experienced cricketer and now coaches around the world in the short formats of the game.

“Having played against him for a number of years, I know he was an excellent cricketer with an excellent cricket brain so to have him around the group is fantastic. It’s great for our lads to have him around. He worked this week with Alex Milton and Henry Cullen – from the Academy – because obviously Coxy is still playing in Dubai.

“The aim is that he will work closely with those three over the course of the summer and once again just help us out in general.”

Gidman added: “In my opinion, James Foster was one of the best keepers in the last 10-15 years, in the world let alone county cricket. To have his knowledge from that point of view is fantastic. He captained, he coaches around the world now in winning teams. It is a fantastic bank of knowledge for the whole group.

“We were looking for some keeping support for our keepers. We are always on the look-out for specialist coaches, but we want quality when we can get them and Foz was available. We opened up some conversations with him and he was really keen to get involved.”