BRIGHT lights, big city, the draw of the big smoke. For some people, London is the centre of the universe and they would not swap life in the capital for love nor money.

But Worcestershire new boy Alan Richardson couldn’t wait to return to the Midlands when the New Road club came calling.

Born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, he played youth cricket for Staffordshire, where he came up against his new skipper Vikram Solanki, before splitting 10 years between Derbyshire and Warwickshire ahead of his move to Middlesex.

Now five seasons on, Richardson is back ‘home’ and he loves it.

“Everyone has asked me if I miss London — not a chance,” the new County seam bowler beamed. “I moved back up from London about a month ago and I love it.

“I liked my time there but it is great to be back to where I call home.

“It was a personal thing to get back up to the Midlands, so when this opportunity came about, with me being in the last year of my contract at Middlesex and Worcestershire showed an interest, it was a no-brainer.”

At 34, Richardson is no spring chicken and he has suffered an array of injuries from broken thumbs to floating bones in his elbow.

While he admits that perhaps he deserves the ‘injury-prone’ tag, the former England Performance Programme bowler is keen to show that he can go through an entire campaign.

“I’m pretty good,” he said. “I have seen the new fitness guy Ross Dewar and physio Ben Langley a little bit just to tinker with a few things and get myself ready to go.

“I really enjoyed my stay at Middlesex and at times I was reasonably successful, but it was really frustrating too. I had a couple of operations that didn’t work and you get tagged as injury-prone and I guess I deserve that, but it is frustrating.

“Last year I was being pushed onto the park as quickly as possible and that didn’t help.

“When you get a little bit older, you sometimes need a little bit more time. But there is no reason why I can’t play in every game next season.”

Richardson is all too aware that the New Road side are going through a rebuilding process having lost the likes of Simon Jones, Gareth Batty, Steve Davies and Stephen Moore.

While Worcestershire went through the entire LV County Championship campaign last summer without a single victory, he feels that it is not all doom and gloom at his new club.

“People say that it was a tough time for Worcestershire last season but I came from a county that finished 17th in the Championship so everything is reasonably rosey,” he said with a wry smile. “These things happen.

“It looks like the club is going through a bit of a cycle. They have lost three or four of their experienced players, but it does give the youngsters a bit more of a chance, so we are all going to have to pull together.

“For people like Steve Rhodes I guess it has been frustrating with promotion and relegation, promotion and relegation, but it shows Worcestershire are a good side to keep playing in Division One.

“The hardest thing has been staying there.”