Gloucestershire tie down local boy James Bracey to new deal

The wicketkeeper-batter, who is the county's vice-captain in red-ball cricket and has made two Test appearances for England, has opted to extend his time at his home county

James Bracey has signed a two-year contract extension at Gloucestershire, keeping him at the county until at least the end of the 2025 season.

Bracey was coming to the end of his current deal and The Cricketer understands that there was plenty of interest from elsewhere in the services of a 26-year-old wicketkeeper-batter, who played two Tests in 2021.

But the Bristolian, who is the county's vice-captain in red-ball cricket, has opted to extend his time at his home county, for whom he has made 150 appearances to date.

"I'm looking forward to being a part of this growing group of players in the years to come and rediscovering my own best form," said Bracey.

The announcement of his extension comes a day after the departure of performance director Steve Snell was confirmed, with The Cricketer later revealing that there is no current plan to fill Snell's role.

^{James Bracey is Gloucestershire's red-ball vice-captain (Harry Trump/Getty Images)}

Instead, some responsibilities are set to be split and shared between others at the club, among them head coach Dale Benkenstein and head of talent pathway Mark Thorburn.

Benkenstein described Bracey's extension as "fantastic" news. "James is exactly the sort of player who will keep driving the club forward," he said, "and I'm very much looking forwards to working with him in the months and years to come."

Bracey has scored almost 4,000 first-class runs for Gloucestershire and is nearing 1,000 in List A cricket ahead of the One-Day Cup.

Meanwhile, allrounder Will Naish is representing Kent's second team this week against Middlesex; the 20-year-old is out of contract at Bristol at the end of the season.

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