Mansfield Hosiery Mills sign Sri Lankan seamer Lahiru Jayarathne

Mills were immediately promoted back up as runners-up to West Bridgfordians a year after relegation and are largely going with the side that achieved that.

Former skipper Adam Dobb said: “Promotion was always the target from the get-go. “It would have been nice to have won the league but you can't have it all sometimes. But we're really happy to be back in the Premier League.

“We have signed a Sri Lankan overseas player who will add a lot of experience for us with the ball and in that middle order. He is an exciting prospect.

“He is a seam bowler – a natural swinger of the ball with a little pace – and he will add something a little different for us in our attack.

“Keiron Garside will continue as captain as my work commitments prevented me doing the job. But Kieran stepped up and did a pretty good job, seeing us through to promotion, so we're looking forward to having him at the helm again this year.”

Mills also welcome back former club junior Gaz Curtis, who has been out of the game in recent years.

“He was only able to play one game for us last year due to various reasons but he is hopefully now committed to 18-20 games this year which is great news for us,” said Dobb.

“We did have Chris Fletcher lined up from Clipstone, but he has now decided to stay with them which is disappointing for us.

“We are hanging on for one more player but it is a 'wait and see' what the league say on it.

“We think otherwise we have enough. Everyone improved last year and started to understand their games a bit more.

“Mark Smallwood had a fantastic year with the bat and showed everyone what we knew he could do, so hopefully he is in for another good season. And as a side we have gelled a hell of a lot more.

“We know each other strengths a lot more and that will stand us in good stead. The talent is certainly there. It's just about making sure we execute those skills on the field now.”

He added: “We have three really big games to start off with and we are really excited to have Cavs first game.

“We will be missing a couple of players unfortunately, but we have a pretty solid squad and there's no better time to play them than first game of the season. Hopefully the rain stays away.

“Then we have West Bridgfordians and Cuckney so we know we have a tough start, and if we can get some points from those first three games it will stand us in good stead going forwards.”