The new director of cricket at Hatherley and Reddings, Sathya Prakash, will bring experience, commitment and plenty of enthusiasm to the role.

The 50-year-old has taken over from Sam Coote and is relishing the opportunity.

It’s the first time he has taken on such a position and he said: “I’ve always had a passion for cricket.

“I’ve got this bug that wants to see all the club’s teams do well and I thought I could use my experience to help the teams perform better.

“It’s a very, very important role but it’s not just about results. I’m responsible for all cricket-related aspects at the club.

“That includes training, coaching, player management, fixtures, player discipline, making the junior pathway smoother.”

Prakash, who was in charge of the junior section at Hatherley last season, learned his cricket in India, the country where he spent the first 25 years of his life.

Born in Hyderabad, he came over to this country, and specifically Cheltenham, for the first time 25 years ago and he said: “I’d always been fascinated by the club cricket culture in England.

“Once I came here, I’ve never left. I came on a work permit. Cheltenham has been very kind to me.”

He worked initially as a software programmer – these days he has his own software business – and he continued: “I like to give back to the community. My business, my cricket, I owe everything to Cheltenham.”

The married dad-of-two – his two sons both came through the youth system at Cheltenham – remains a keen cricketer.

A swing-bowling all-rounder, he plans to spend his Saturday afternoons playing for Hatherley’s 2nds and 3rds this season.

“I’ll also play midweek for Gloucestershire Over-50s and Gloucestershire Gipsies. I manage a couple of games for the Gipsies as well,” he said.

Cricket is clearly going to be a big part of Prakash’s life for the next few months and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

He also organises the ever-popular Cheltenham Premier T20, which this summer will be entering its fourth year.

There have been some standout individual performances in that quickfire format over the past three seasons, performances that Prakash has enjoyed, even though he admits to being something of a traditionalist when it comes to cricket.

“I’m an old school cricketer,” he said. “I believe that if you get the basics right everything else will follow.”

By basics, Prakash means things like training properly, preparing properly and how you behave, as well as how you perform in games.

He played for Birdlip for 12 to 14 years before switching to Cheltenham when his sons joined their junior set-up.

He coached their junior sides and then headed up the Cheltenham’s youth section for a number of years before making the move to Hatherley ahead of the 2025 campaign.

This will be his first season playing for Hatherley – he played for Birdlip last year – and he has the same ambitions for all of the teams.

“I want us to be competitive, I want us to be hard on the pitch,” he said. “Everyone should give 100 per cent when they’re playing.”

And Prakash is someone who has always given 100 per cent because he readily admits that he found batting very difficult when he first moved to England.

“In India I’d always stay in the crease or go back, I never played on the front foot,” he explained. “We used our wrists because the ball bounces nicely onto the bat.

“We’d play either on mats or dusty wickets, they were never soft.

“When I first came here I struggled because I had to learn how to play on the front foot.”

Hatherley’s flagship men’s team, who will again be led by all-rounder Tom Hage, will be hoping to play front-foot cricket this season.

They will be competing in Premier 2 Glos/Wilts of the West of England Premier League  when they will be up against the likes of Cheltenham, Tewkesbury and Painswick.

They finished seventh in the 10-team division last season and Prakash said: “We’ve got a young team, I think we’re looking for a solid season.

“We’ve brought in Brad Dial as coach and we’re hoping we’ll continue to see lots of improvements.”

And what about a possible promotion push?

“Promotion is a by-product of good performances,” Prakash said. “Good performances are a by-product of good training and hard work.

“If we get promotion that would be the icing on the cake but you’ve got to put the hard yards in and train as often as you can.”

Hatherley begin their league campaign with a home game against Painswick on Saturday 2^nd May.