Leicestershire: Wasim Khan sets promotion target

Khan won the double with Warwickshire in 1995

Leicestershire chief executive Wasim Khan has set the players a promotion target after two successive years without a single Championship victory.

The former Derbyshire, Sussex and Warwickshire batsman has just taken charge at Grace Road.

"I'm very ambitious and I've spoken to people about promotion. Why not? Why not go for it and change our mindset?" Khan told BBC Radio Leicester.

"We need to start to think like champions and winners."

The 43-year-old continued: "I want us to start with the bar set very high. If you think that way, you'll start to think about how you practice, what your mental state is, you'll really start to believe in yourself and really push towards goals that you're set.

"It may not happen in year one, but what will happen is that we'll massively change from the way we played last year because that clearly wasn't acceptable."

Khan had an 11-year career as a county player before moving into business and cricket administration.

He is the first British Asian to be named CEO of a county club and he and new head coach Andrew McDonald are determined to shake up the way things are done.

Leicestershire finished bottom of Division Two last summer after six draws and 10 defeats in their 16 matches, but he insisted the statistics did not tell the whole story.

"If you look at the scores last year we were very close to winning at least four games last year and couldn't quite get over the line. The margins aren't that great.

Batsman Mark Cosgrove is expected to complete a deal to join Leicestershire shortly

"With the influence of Andrew McDonald and (seam bowler) Clint McKay coming into the dressing room to feed into the young bunch that we have, and the huge amount of enthusiasm and will to want to do well, I think we can get over the line in many, many games," continued Khan.

"Suddenly if you win two or three games, you're right up there. We've just got to back ourselves both on and off the field, in everything that we do. If we don't, we'll languish."

He confirmed that batsman Mark Cosgrove would be joining fellow Australians McDonald and McKay at the club, with the signing likely to be confirmed by the end of the month.

"He's positive he wants to come to us," added Khan.

"He'll be a great addition to what we want to do next summer, so hopefully we'll be in a position by 1 February to formally announce that.

"He comes from a winning environment in Australia. We're going to bring him in and he'll bolster our batting line-up."