Spark one up for Lord Jeetz folks, aka Jeetan Patel, aka the new Warwickshire Bears captain.

A soldier of the Kiwi County Tour, Jeetz has held things down for kiwi cricketers plying their trade in England's County Championship as well as the 50-over and T20 competitions for a number of years now. His exploits are well known as Jeetz has consistently been the best spinner in England for almost the past decade and having established himself as a Warwickshire legend during this time, his appointment as skipper could be viewed as a fine reward.

This is definitely a fine reward for Jeetz given what he has offered Warwickshire, however if you scratch beneath the surface you'll find a beautiful opportunity for Jeetz to further his Warwickshire legend. 2017 was a tough year for the Bears as they only won one County game in Division One, thus resulting in relegation down to Division Two and the Bears were also dead-last in their North Group for the Royal London One-Day Cup, having won just two games. In the County Championship and RLODC, Warwickshire won three games all up and that took its toll.

Ian Bell was the skipper, but he stood down late last season and Jonathan Trott was then given skipper duties, effectively meaning that Jeetz is taking over from Trott. Trott however doesn't seem like a natural leader and probably did his County a favour by taking the skipper job during a tough time, now Warwickshire can look forward with Jeetz as the skipper and his experienced comrades in Bell and Trott offering their support.

We caught up with sport director Ashley Giles to talk about the management restructure at Warwickshire and look ahead to this winter's pre-season programme at Edgbaston.

Everything I've found in my research about Warwickshire has 'transition' in neon lights, thus making the nod for Jeetz as captain so awesome. This isn't you casual transition or pivot to a younger set up though, this is a transition of an almighty scale and Ashley Giles was given the job of Director of Cricket prior to last season after the previous joker in the position 'lost the dressing room' as they say. Not only was a cultural overhaul required, the Bears had a roster of players who were mostly over 30-years-old.

Grizzly experience ain't bad, yet there comes a time to reinvigorate a squad with young, fresh blood - exactly what Jeetz has experienced with Wellington Firebirds. That's reason enough for transition, only that the Bears didn't seem to have too much young talent coming through their development pathways. Hence the job of Giles was to not only oversee a pivot towards a younger group, but to also suss out how Warwickshire produced that younger group.

22-year-old Dominic Sibley for example, was recruited from Surrey for 2018 but got an early loan to the Bears during last season with 35-year-old Rikki Clarke going the other way to Surrey. Now Sipley will be vice-captain for Jeetz and Warwickshire have also recruited Will Rhodes (22yrs) from Yorkshire and Adam Hose (25yrs) from Somerset. Mathew Lamb (21yrs) and Andy Umeed (21yrs) moved from Warwickshire's 2nd XI to the top team last season, while Jeetz's protege Sukhjit Singh (21yrs, lefty spinner) made his debut this last season as well.

Such a reliance on youth isn't a recipe for County success, yet the process has begun of moving Warwickshire out of their grizzly veteran era that resulted in trophies but didn't come with much planning of the future. It would be cool for Jeetz to be named skipper of a team that was playing well and everything was ticking along as-per, however this is amplified with Jeetz being the guy who will lead Warwickshire into a new era. There is a strong possibility that Jeetz will be remembered for playing a key role in changing the trajectory of Warwickshire, as well as being an on-field legend.

Jeetz still has plenty to offer in terms of runs and wickets, yes; runs and wickets. Last season he didn't pass the magical 50 wicket mark, he still managed to take 41 wickets @ 29.80avg/2.53rpo, while also hitting 608 runs @ 27.63avg. The only Warwickshire players to score more runs than Jeetz were Trott and Sibley, with Sibley making a mid-season switch. Jeetz scored more runs last season than Ravi Bopara, Adam Lyth, Scott Borthwick and Dawid Malan who played for England in the first Test vs Australia.

I think it's safe to say that Jeetz will lead by example.

This also gives us two Kiwi County Tour captains as James Franklin is the skipper of Middlesex. Middlesex also had a rough year as they only won two of eight RLODC games and were second-to-last in Division One, a spot ahead of Warwickshire. Middlesex did win the Division One title in 2016 though and are in a far healthier position as a club than Warwickshire is.

Warwickshire is in a hole where results dried up and there wasn't much attention paid to the future while they were enjoying success. Ashley Giles has made a bunch of changes as the boss-dawg and the latest change is giving the leadership duties to Lord Jeetz, who will not only play his role along with Giles in yanking Warwickshire out of that hole, but also being a guiding presence for Sibley who is likely to take over from Jeetz when he is ready.

Warwickshire Bears are moving into the Lord Jeetz era and this is a momentous day for the Kiwi County Tour faithful - Lord Jeetz we salute you.

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Peace and love 27.