JACK RUSSELL believes the sheer presence of director of cricket John Bracewell has made Gloucestershire up their game this season.

Chipping Sodbury-based Russell played under Bracewell during the New Zealanders previous spell as head coach and is now part of his coaching staff, helping out with the wicket-keepers, having fulfilled a role as team mentor last season.

After finishing rock bottom of the County Championship without a single victory last year, Gloucestershire are now promotion challengers and narrowly missed out on a Lord’s final after being beaten in the Friends Provident Trophy semi-final by Sussex and Russell hailed Bracewell for the impact he has made.

“What he does is make everyone accountable,” said Russell who played in 54 Tests for England.

“You’re not allowed to cruise or get away with anything. The standards go up and he doesn’t have to say anything.

“The influence he has and the reputation from when he was here before makes you want to work and play for him.

“The attitude and character is important and the end result is important. Even if you play well he wants you to play better.”

Russell believes there is still some way to go to recreate the glory days, which he was a central part of when Gloucestershire won seven one-day trophies in five years, but insists they are heading in the right direction.

“I think we have made good progress,” he said.

“It will take a bit of time before we can get to the level where we can consistently win trophies but we’ve shown glimpses of it and in the Friends Provident Trophy we should be in the final but we blew it in the batting innings. If we got the final 20 overs right we would be in the final.

“It’s a shame we didn’t win against Sussex and if we had got to the final it would’ve showed things have moved forward quite a lot.”

Russell is currently relishing his new role with the county he served for 23 years as a player and hopes to develop a new crop of talented wicket-keepers.

He said: “The wicket-keeping department is my responsibility and it’s going well.

“Further down you’ve got the teenagers and my headache is I’m going to have some disappointed teenagers because they could all get in.

“I’m pleased with the standard which is good and hopefully I can turn one or two into pros.”

Russell, now 45, retired five years ago due to a long-suffering back injury but made an appearance at Stone for Chris Taylor’s benefit match last week.

Now unable to keep wicket, he was seen racing around the field and even bowled three overs. He thoroughly enjoyed the game and praised Stone for their hospitality.

“I thought it was a really good crowd,” said Russell.

“I played there five years ago for Matt Windows’ benefit and had a good time then as well.”

“They (Stone) did a good job out there because it was busy but they looked after us well.”