WORCESTERSHIRE are set to play a warm-up game in Kidderminster ahead of the new campaign.

Kidderminster Cricket Club's Chester Road ground will play host to the Pears when they take on Gloucestershire on Monday, April 1.

The clash, which should feature a host of first team players, will start at 11am, feature 50 overs per side and be free to enter.

The game will be the county's final white-ball warm-up fixture ahead of the Royal London One-Day Cup.

It will follow Worcestershire's three-day practice match with Warwickshire at Edgbaston from March 26 until 28.

Meanwhile, chairman Fanos Hira says there is a greater expectation for Worcestershire “to win things more regularly than in the past” and a belief that there is “sufficient talent” at Blackfinch New Road to achieve that goal.

Worcestershire won the Vitality Blast Twenty20 trophy for the first time last summer amid great scenes of joy on finals day at Edgbaston.

Hira says in his annual report that regaining a Specsavers County Championship Division One spot is a major aim for 2019 — and then to remain in the top flight on a regular basis.

The County have brought in Wayne Parnell and Riki Wessels on three-year contracts.

Hira, in his annual report, writes: “Our playing performances in 2018 indicate how unpredictable sport can be.

“Whereas in 2017, we struggled to win a T20 game, in 2018 we thankfully couldn’t stop winning.

"This culminated in winning the Vitality Blast having attended our first final on a historic and memorable night.

“In contrast, our red-ball performance was disappointingly not as good as our white-ball cricket.

“Our aim in the coming year is to get promoted back to Division One and unlike in other years to then consistently stay in that league.

“We have an expectation that we need to win things more regularly than in the past.”