Who is the captain?

Mark Butcher. The junior partner in the family firm of Alan Butcher (the coach) and son, but he is very much his own man on the field, where he has proved to be an astute and inspirational leader. The joints creak on cold, wet days but he still scores his runs

Who is the overseas player?

Matthew Nicholson (Australia)

Who has arrived?

Usman Afzaal (Northamptonshire), Pedro Collins, Saqlain Mushtaq (Sussex), Simon King, Laurie Evans, Chris Lewis (Twenty20 only)

Who has left?

Rikki Clarke, Nayan Doshi (both Derbyshire), Rory Hamilton-Brown (Sussex), Ian Salisbury (Warwickshire), Azhar Mahmood (Kent), Mohammad Akram

What has the IPL/ICL done to them?

Saqlain's return to the Oval was jeopardised by his involvement in the ICL, but he has been cleared to play by the ECB

What is their nickname?

Brown Caps

How did they fare last season?

LV County Championship: 4th, first division; NatWest Pro40: 4th, second division; Friends Provident Trophy: 5th, South conference; Twenty20 Cup: 3rd, South group

What are their prospects?

If they start the new season as strongly as they finished the last one they will be challenging for their nineteenth outright county championship. They should also be competitive in one-day cricket

What are their strengths?

Vastly experienced batsmen in Mark Ramprakash and Butcher, an influential wicketkeeper-batsman in Jonathan Batty and an attack strengthened by the arrival of Collins, the former West Indies left-arm swing bowler, as a Kolpak player and, perhaps, a comeback from a leaner, fitter James Ormond

What are their weaknesses?

A distinct lack of pace in the attack, although the emergence of Chris Jordan could fill the void

One to watch

Ramprakash. The best batsman of his generation has averaged 100 in the past two seasons and needs three hundreds to complete a century of centuries