Mick Newell praised the “inspirational leadership” of Nottinghamshire’s former Captain and Cricket Manager Clive Rice, who recently passed away at the age of 66.

Nottinghamshire’s Director of Cricket, who played alongside Rice during the 80s and inherited the lead coaching role from him in 2002, said the South African’s strength was in leading his team from the front.

“He was the sort of person who made you want to play your best for him, because he gave you so much confidence,” said Newell. “He got an awful lot out of county cricketers who wouldn’t have been as good without him around.

“He had that inspirational leadership. He would lead the team from the front with his performances, but he also made you believe that you were a better player than you probably were. 

“He wouldn’t ask you to do things he didn’t think you were capable of, and the fact he was asking you - and you knew what a fantastic cricketer he was, - it gave you that self belief to be part of a successful and winning team.”

Rice’s stint as Captain of Nottinghamshire, which began in 1979, saw the county emerge from being perennial strugglers to three time trophy winners; something that, in Newell’s eyes, puts him beyond compare in terms of his contribution. 

“I just look back on it and because of his positive mindset and his inspirational performances, you wanted him to think you were a good player.

“There is no doubt that he got the best out of a lot of players; more senior players such as John Birch and younger players like myself and Paul Johnson. We played our best cricket with him around because he just had that way of inspiring you that filled you full of confidence.

“In terms of where this club was when he first came here, there hasn’t been a more inspirational player for this club in the last however many years you want to go back. The club should be enormously grateful to him for what he did and he left a legacy of trophies behind him which is fantastic.” 

Notts Outlaws will wear black armbands in their Royal London One-Day Cup fixture against Sussex tomorrow night, a tribute mirrored by Stuart Broad in the Investec Ashes Test at Edgbaston.