STEVE Rhodes says it will be a new experience for Worcestershire’s players to be regarded amongst the leading candidates to gain promotion from Division Two of the LV= County Championship next summer.

But Worcestershire’s director of cricket says such a high opinion of the County’s chances also shows the respect the current set of players at New Road now command within the game.

Worcestershire were promoted in 2014 after being tipped in some quarters to finish bottom of Division Two but are now more highly favoured by some bookmakers.

Now the squad assembled by Rhodes has two years extra experience under its belt plus a year of playing top-flight cricket and has earned a healthy respect after coming so close to staying in Division One.

Rhodes said: “That (being regarded as one of the favourites) will make a change because the last time we went up I think we were tipped to finish bottom of Division Two.

“For us to go down to Division Two, and then people may perceive us as one of the favourites to go back up, then that’s other people respecting what we have got now.

“It’s what we want. We want people to respect the quality of cricketers we do have, young cricketers especially.

“Added to that though, it is also time to produce. It’s all about how you play out there and you get the points by how you play out there.”

Meanwhile, Rhodes believes a case can be made for the Royal London One-Day Cup swapping places with the NatWest T20 Blast and being staged earlier in the season.

Rhodes feels the 50-over competition can benefit from having a slot in the calendar when players are “fresher” during the initial stages of a campaign.

Worcestershire had to play five RLC matches in seven days at one stage this summer with other counties having to endure similar sequence of games deep into an already demanding schedule for the summer.

Rhodes can see the advantage to England in preparing for the 2019 World Cup in this country from an earlier slot for the RLC.

Rhodes said: “I think the ECB potentially may want to look at bringing that tournament (RLC)forward.

“If you want to put some importance to that tournament, which they want to do regarding England and the 2019 World Cup, make it your first one-day tournament of the summer.

“People will then be fresh and looking forward to the challenges of it all.

“TheT20 will always be challenging, will always be exciting, will always be something that people want to aspire towards winning.

“So if you have it (the RLC and T20) the other way around, I can see a big ‘win’ for everyone.”