ALL-ROUNDER Ryan ten Doeschate has admitted he never had any doubts about signing a new contract at Essex. The Dutchman penned a two-year extension to his deal to keep him at the County Ground until 2014.
The 32-year-old will pass ten years as an Essex player this season, and Chelmsford remains the only place in England he wants to play.
"Of course I'm pleased," he said. "I've been wanting to sign for a long time but being away it's not always easy to tie up the final things. But I've always only wanted to play my cricket here at Essex."
Ten Doeschate has had a busy winter, playing for Otago Volts in New Zealand and then Chittagong Kings in the BPL – where he ended the tournament as second-highest run scorer.
He is currently back in England for pre-season with Essex, but will be off again before the season begins as he returns to the IPL with Kolkata Knight Riders.
"That's the way I've chosen to go about playing my cricket now," he added. "Especially not playing that much in the IPL, I need to play cricket so the winters are always going to be busy.
"At the same time I feel refreshed. I've had a short break and now I'm getting ready for the season with the Essex boys and I feel fresh and raring to go."
Among his teammates in Chittagong was Australian fast bowler Shaun Tait, who will be among his Essex teammates in 2013 after penning a deal for the Twenty20 Cup.
The pair will be hoping to help fire the Eagles to a fourth appearance at Finals Day – provided they can get out of what ten Doeschate admits is a tough south group.
Every team in the group apart from the Eagles have lifted the trophy, including current holders Hampshire, but ten Doeschate believes his side can once again get to the later stages.
He said: "It is the hardest group but there is a quarter-final stage so it's quite lenient – you can afford to slip up a few times.
"Without a doubt it's the hardest group and I think the southern counties are better at Twenty20 cricket as a whole. It's very challenging, we face better sides, but it makes us perform better.
"We've got out of the group before, and we certainly back ourselves in the group and hope to get to the quarter-finals again."
Ten Doeschate and his teammates are heading off for some warm weather training in the Spanish resort of La Manga on Thursday.
He added: "We've been in the indoor school, I've been there for the last two weeks and the lads have been there for the past three months, but it's always good to train outdoors, to have all the boys together as well.
"It's going to be a big weekend in terms of our planning and strategy for the season and talking about how we're going to go about things. It's nice to get away and it should be a lot of fun."
