No timeframe for Gloucestershire rebuild, says Lewis

Gloucestershire director of cricket Jon Lewis says rebuilding the team to be competitive in the County Championship will take time.

Speaking to BBC Radio Bristol, Lewis - who came on board at the end of 2025 - also said he had no timeframe in mind for how long it would take to get the club to the top.

Gloucestershire sit bottom of Division 2 with just under half of the domestic test season gone.

"The club has ambition to be a top-eight team across all formats of the game," said Lewis.

"But it will take time to build a squad able to compete at that level, to bring the right quality of players into the club to support what we have already.

"I am not going to put a number on it - two, three, five years, et cetera, we have a good spine of a team, but those guys need help more around them."

Lewis' role is a homecoming for the 50-year-old, who spent much of his playing career with Gloucestershire.

He was previously England Women head coach before being sacked following the 16-0 whitewash series Down Under at the start of 2025.

The former seamer has also worked with the England men's bowling team.

His latest position with Gloucestershire tasks him with "making sure we uphold the standards of the cricket club and making sure we are all pushing in the same direction".

That also includes ensuring a first-class recruitment programme, something Lewis said his years of experience in the game can help with.

"I have developed a large network of contacts around the world, so when I pick the phone up over a 24-hour period, as long as I know the profile of the player I am looking for, I can pretty much get a sense of who we could attract.

"The tricky bit is the availability and then agreeing a deal.

"Can we meet players' ambitions? Absolutely. What do we need to do that? We need to make sure that the aspiration of a player is to play franchise cricket and international cricket alongside being a successful domestic player."

As Lewis is already finding, that task is a balance of long- and short-term projects.

"We lost seven fast bowlers last year; replacing that in any market is just not possible. We are lacking a balance of squad," said Lewis.

"We have to look at two things: developing our own fast young bowlers, and that is longer-term, but also who is available and in the market, and then you have to compete with everyone."

While many players have been lured elsewhere in the past year, Lewis has watched their progress and has quickly noticed a growing trend: a lack of cricket.

"In my view you only become more valuable as a cricketer by playing cricket. For me, sitting on the bench and coming in and out of games is unattractive," Lewis said.

"There seems to be an issue in English cricket at the moment where a lot of players aren't playing regular cricket, and the bigger clubs with bigger budgets are stockpiling cricketers.

"Players going to big clubs can find it really hard to fit in. I left Gloucester for Surrey and immediately walked into a dressing room with 10-12 internationals. I knew I would have to fight really hard because they would drop me like a stone.

"It's a risk-reward scenario for the players. Players go to a bigger club thinking they are going to get more opportunity, but that is a misconception among the group for me."

And Lewis said there were examples out there of players getting their chances on merit.

"David Payne has shown that if you play really well for your club, people will notice.

"I have worked in franchise cricket, and I know the people who run those franchises. They don't care about where you play your cricket; they just care about what you can produce on the field."

Besides on-field personnel, Lewis also has the job of making sure Gloucestershire looks as appealing as possible off the field.

While the county may offer opportunity, the 50-year-old is very aware that world-class infrastructure will be paramount in attracting players who match the club's ambitious targets.

"We need to make sure we have the facilities and coaching in place so they can come here and improve," said Lewis.

"We are investing in some new dressing rooms; it's a great facility that is something that we are really proud of, maybe in the top three facilities in the country in terms of changing.

"When I'm talking to players, it's my job to explain why Bristol is a brilliant place to come and play cricket and what a wonderful club we have here that values great cricket and is a great city to live in."