I'm quietly confident this season will be much better than last year's one for Gloucestershire.

We've definitely improved from last year and our work-rate during the winter and in pre-season was very good.

The return of John Bracewell as director of cricket has been great for the club and I think we can challenge strongly in all competitions.

That said, when you cross the line and go out to play, it's up to you to deliver – and that hasn't happened in the past season-and-a-half at the club.

Now pre-season is over, it's up to the guys to put all their hard work into performances on the field.

We are in a results-driven business and it's important we have confidence in each other as individuals to do the job required. If we do that, I think we'll be fine.

Part of the reason for my optimism has been the shrewd signings of James Franklin and Ian Saxelby.

Of course, James had a short spell with us in 2004 and showed then what a good player he is. James has since gone on to play quite a bit of international cricket for New Zealand and I think he's going to be a big asset to us this season.

I was watching him bowl in the nets at The Oval on Tuesday and was impressed with how he was swinging the ball late and at decent pace. He seems fresh and as keen as mustard and that's always good to see in your overseas professional.

Saxelby is only a young kid, but he has lots of promise. He is a strong bowler with a big future ahead of him, although we must be careful not to over-use him.

We struggled to take 20 wickets in Championship games last season, but our bowling unit is now looking much stronger with those two on board. And let's not forget about Anthony Ireland and Tom Stayt, who both bowled well in pre-season.

They are two different types of bowlers. Anthony is a very much a bounce bowler whereas Tom is more of a pitch-it-up and swing bowler.

We've also got three spin options in Vikram Banerjee, Richard Dawson and Matt Gitsham. Unfortunately, Richard has suffered a foot injury and is out of contention at the moment, but Vikram bowled well in pre-season and deserved the chance that has been given him in our opening match of the season at The Oval.

Personally, I've enjoyed having a lot time to work on my cricket now I've given up the captaincy. Thinking back, that was something that didn't happen last year and, as a consequence, maybe some of my skills were neglected.

I've really focussed hard on getting my body right.

I feel in great condition and my fitness results have shown that. Now I just want to get out and start taking lots of wickets.

As for our batting, there's no doubt that on paper we've got a fantastic line-up.

But you don't play on paper and the guys have got to go out there and do the business.

It's all about producing performances when we need them. We need more good first-innings scores this season, because we ended up chasing games more often that not last year.

Consistency of performance really is the key to us improving our Championship cricket. Over the past two to three seasons, we've played well for periods of games, but rarely played consistently well over the four days.

Again, going back to James (Franklin), I think the fact he is a very capable batsman as well as a quality bowler will be a big help to our Championship performances.

He's been batting at six for New Zealand and the intention is for him to do the same for us. That frees up a lot of options, because it means you can play five specialist bowlers if you want to do, without weakening the batting, or you can play an extra batsmen. While I expect us to do well in the Championship, I'm probably more confident we will challenge strongly in the one-day competitions.

Of course, we had great success when John (Bracewell) was in charge of us last time and there's no reason why we can't have a good one-day campaign.

John brings a lot of nous to one-day cricket. He talks very well about strategies and I think you'll see that come out in the side's performances.

Indeed, I think that was evident in the win we had over Somerset in pre-season. I know it was only a friendly, but it was a polished performance in our first white-ball match of the year.

We get our one-day season under way with a home game against Sussex in the Friends Provident Trophy on Sunday.

We're in a tough group, which also contains Surrey, Yorkshire and Durham, but I feel we're as good as any team in the country when we play at our best in one-day cricket.

INTERVIEW: Mark Easterbrook