WORCESTERSHIRE Royals' skipper Ben Smith has issued a rallying call to his troops as they prepare to open their Twenty20 Cup campaign against Gloucestershire Gladiators at New Road this evening (5.30pm).

The match will be watched by a bumper sell-out crowd with Smith determined that the County get off to a winning start.

He said: "It's like anything really. If you are playing something competitively, it might have a bit of a fun factor to it, but as soon as you cross the rope and get out there on the field you want to win."

The high profile competition was a massive hit during its inaugural season last year when the County failed to progress past the group stages after taking part with a severely depleted squad due to injuries and international calls.

Smith said: "Last year was a real shame because Graeme Hick was injured, Kabir Ali and Vikram Solanki were playing international cricket and I think we had a couple of other injuries as well at some stage. So those who didn't play Twenty20 last season are really looking forward to playing it.

"I think the competition will come more and more prestigious as the years go on because that's the way cricket is going. I enjoy it. As captain it's pretty hectic with field placings, bowling changes and time limits that you have to stick to."

County vice-captain Steve Rhodes said: "We had an amazing amount of absentees from our first team in the Twenty20 Cup last year and it hurt to be honest because it's a very serious competition. We all took it very seriously.

"This year we're in a very good position and as lot of the exciting players that we wanted to see last year in the Twenty20 are available."

Rhodes is convinced the crash-bang-wallop competition is here to stay, saying: "If you look at the amount of people that come and watch then it's obviously appealing to the public.

"There's a different type of audience for it. They are a little bit younger and there's certainly a lot of children who come and watch Twenty20."