WHEN Sir Alex Ferguson talks about winning trophies his main focus is about retaining them and that is something that we are looking to do with the Pro40.

Winning that title last season was a fantastic achievement and something that we want to repeat.

With the structure of cricket seemingly changing by the day, this Pro40 competition looks to be the one that could fall by the wayside.

So if we can go out and win the trophy again then no-one else can get their grubby mitts on it.

Last year we won it without, arguably, one of our best one-day players. Vikram Solanki missed half the games because of playing for England.

Now he is back, our team is even stronger and Stephen Moore has also come into the mix as well.

But Nottinghamshire Outlaws are a good side so we can’t take anything for granted.

This match tonight will be under lights and that just adds to the occasion. It is the first game of the Pro40 season, because we are the champions and it’s live on Sky.

Playing under lights at New Road doesn’t seem to have that much of an effect but with the way the conditions are you never know what can happen.

We have all been working hard to get ourselves right for this game.

I have been working with Jack Birkenshaw; Steve Davies, Moeen Ali and Daryl Mitchell have been out with the seconds playing a match, while Steve Rhodes has been working Stephen Moore, Gareth Andrew, Matt Mason and Vikram.

The others have been working hard too, we’ll be going into the game confident of being champions and that is something we are looking to be again.

Looking back at our last game against Northamptonshire it was a pretty big toss to lose. The wet weather meant that the wicket was pretty damp and it reduced the margins for error greatly.

They bowled us out for a low score which gave them a bit more freedom when they came out to bat.

They didn’t go out and slog but they exploited the conditions better than we did and if we weren’t on the money they went after us.

In the second innings, Vikram batted beautifully and Hicky made sure that the game was safe.

The match was ruined by the weather and, had we had a bit more time, who knows what would have happened.

The wicket was starting to turn and having bowled on the same pitch on Sunday I can tell you that it was turning a lot and I would have been very disappointed had I not taken any wickets.

But I guess we’ll never know because I didn’t get the opportunity.

There has been a lot of talk about franchise cricket in a Twenty20 league this past week and to me it is all pie in the sky - there is no way you would get me playing for Warwickshire!