IT was very disappointing to lose our game with Surrey last week.

Because they are above us in the league, we desperately wanted to beat them.

However, the really big games are still ahead of us and we are confident of being able to win.

The important games for us will be against Leicestershire this week and what could be a grudge match against Essex, who are just behind us, at the end of this month.

We just want to concentrate on going into each game looking to win it -- that is how we have played all season.

Obviously it is good news for us that Graeme Hick has agreed to sign a new one-year deal with Worcestershire.

He really has proved himself in all forms of cricket this year.

When any cricketer is in the last year of their contract, a club is quite within their rights to put in a 28-day notice of their intentions to talk to that player.

Derbyshire made an approach for him, which is understandable because he is a top-class cricketer.

We start our Championship game with Leicestershire tomorrow and we will be looking to get a win. They can be a tricky side to play against and we certainly won't be resting on our laurels.

We will take the game one session at a time and look to win each one to build up the pressure and get ourselves into a strong position. This is the way we approach all of our games.

We are optimistic that both Graeme and Kabir Ali will be fit to play against Leicester.

Graeme had the stitches in his hand taken out today and Kabir will have a fitness test before the game.

Although Zaheer Khan has had to bowl a lot of overs this season, he has been terrific.

He is a model professional and I'm sure he will be fine to play too.

I'm sure Kabir will look to bounce back from being left out of the England squad for the ICC Champions Trophy by getting back to full fitness and then he will be looking to do well for Worcestershire.

That is the recipe for getting success.

Also, it is terrific for Vikram Solanki that he is in the ICC squad. He has had a very good season for us and hopefully he can finish it off well.