WORCESTERSHIRE has recruited former England wicket-keeper James Foster to work with their trio of glove men this season.

Ben Cox, Alex Milton and Henry Cullen will be put through their paces by Foster who played in seven tests, 11 one-day internationals and five T20 matches.

Foster held a session with Milton and Cullen at New Road on Monday and Cox will join up on his return from playing for the MCC against Surrey in Dubai.

Cox has often spoke of his admiration of Foster who played his final home game for Essex against Worcestershire at Chelmsford in September before hanging up his spikes after 19 years.

First-team coach Alex Gidman said: “Foz has joined us as one of our support staff and we will see him at various stages throughout the summer to work with our keepers specifically, but also work with the whole group.

“He is a vastly-experienced cricketer and now coaches around the world in the short formats of the game.

“Having played against Foz for a number of years, I know he has an excellent cricket brain so to have him around the group is fantastic.

“He worked this week with Alex Milton and Henry Cullen from the academy because Coxy is still playing in Dubai “The aim is that Foz will work closely with those three over the course of the summer and once again just help us out in general.”

Gidman added: “In my opinion, James Foster was one of the best keepers over the past 10-15 years, in the world let alone county cricket.

“To have his knowledge from that point of view is fantastic. He captained, he coaches around the world now in winning teams.

“We were looking for some keeping support. We are always on the look-out for specialist coaches but we want quality when we can get them and Foz was available.

“We opened up some conversations with him and he was really keen to get involved.”

Worcestershire has batted and bowled for 90 overs over the past two days against Warwickshire and play in a 50-over friendly at Edgbaston today (11am).