WORCESTERSHIRE batsman Callum Ferguson has hailed the impact on his early career of Sussex head coach Jason Gillespie ahead of Tuesday’s rescheduled meeting between the two counties at Kidderminster (11am).

Ferguson was in his late teens when he first started playing alongside Gillespie for South Australia in the Sheffield Shield after making his domestic bow in Adelaide during the 2004-2005 campaign for Redbacks.

Gillespie, 44, left a lasting impression with Ferguson on how to approach the game before hanging up his spikes and embarking on a successful coaching career in England with Yorkshire before his switch to Hove.

Ferguson, 34, said: “We played three or four seasons together when I was first starting out for South Australia and as a senior player he was fantastic to me and looked after me really well.

“He certainly taught me a lot about how to play hard-nosed first-class cricket so I’ve got no doubt coming up against Sussex that it is going to be a real challenge.

“Any side Jason leads will put up a contest and play in the right spirit and certainly provide lots of challenges.

“I’m really looking forward to the game and it will be great to catch up with him. I can’t speak highly enough of him.

“Jason was a fantastic player, a legend of Australian cricket, there is no doubt about that.

“He was such a great character and everyone loved watching him, the long hair, the fierce, competitive fast bowling, swinging it both ways.

“I loved watching him play in the Australian colours and I was very fortunate to have played with him.

“Now in the coaching sphere he is doing great things. He’s had some fantastic success with Yorkshire and is doing a great job with Sussex now and also won the Big Bash with Adelaide Strikers.”

Ferguson and his team-mates will look to end a run of three games without a win.

But they will have to make the move 14 miles up the road to Kidderminster due to the current flooding at Blackfinch New Road and the fixture has been put back 24 hours to allow more time for preparatory work at the out-ground.

Worcestershire will stage their first County Championship match at Chester Road for 11 years but the ground was once a regular venue for first class cricket.

The held their first County Championship match at the Birmingham Premier League club nearly a century ago in 1921.

A trip to Chester Road became a regular part of Worcestershire’s calendar between 1921 and 1973 and then again between 1987 and 2002.

It was floods at the County’s headquarters that led to two Championship matches being switched to Kidderminster in 2007 plus another one 12 months later.

Paceman Josh Tongue remains a doubt with the arm injury which kept him out of the drawn game with Lancashire.

The decimation of the seconds programme to the elements means it is also too soon for England under 19 bowler Dillon Pennington to return from an ankle injury.