Northants have been well off the pace for the promotion places since suffering a miserable relegation in 2014 but Wakely, who has extended his contract at Wantage Road until 2019, says the dressing room are determined to put that right this summer.
Financial pressures and a priority on white-ball cricket are mitigating factors in Northants inconsistency in the four-day game over the past two years but with the club’s finances entering calmer waters and the playing staff now more experienced, there is genuine optimism for an stronger showing in the Championship.
“To be honest we’re all fed up of being average,” said Wakely. “Our four-day cricket hasn’t been consistent enough over the past few years so it’s something we want to sort out. We have so much talent in our dressing room.
“We’ve been talking about how we believe we have a side who can be competing in the Championship. We finished last season really well, so there’s now some expectation on the club and there’s a good buzz around the place.
“They key areas I think are taking away the cheap dismissals from our batting. We’ve got players who want to score freely but you can’t have guys being caught at cover if you want to be serious about getting promoted.”
Ben Sanderson led the Northants attack with 55 wickets at 21.03 in 2016. The bowling has been bolstered with the winter recruit of Nathan Buck from Lancashire.
“We definitely have the bowlers capable of making us competitive. There's going to be good competition in the group with someone always missing out and hopefully we’ll be able to rotate our bowlers too which is something we haven’t always had.
“If we can add to our strong attack a couple of batsman getting past 1000 runs then we’ll have a great chance of being up there.”
Northants main enemy last season was often the Wantage Road wickets which produced draws in five of the eight fixtures - something Wakely is keen to change for 2017.
“For me it’s about winning games not drawing them - if you look at how the points are split up it’s so much more beneficial to win, and because of that you might have to be prepared to lose. So I think you’re likely to see more competitive games this summer with teams chasing results, not setting games up as such but maybe not batting sides out of matches and keeping the opposition involved.
“With our wickets, we might leave the grass a little longer. When we take too much off the wickets tend to get dead. The only way I think we’re going to get the wickets going through is to leave live grass on and roll that grass into the wicket. But I think one thing we have to be better at is seeing the opposition and then preparing a pitch for how we want to play against them.”
Northants open up their campaign against Glamorgan at Wantage Road and even early season injury concerns to bowlers Richard Gleeson (knee) and Muhammed Azharullah (ankle) and allrounder Rob Keogh (toe) cannot douse the enthusiasm for the new season.
“Hopefully this is the year when we get everyone coming through and allow the talent in our dressing room to blossom.”