Cox moved to the big smoke when he was 22 and during his days with Sydney Uni spent countless Saturdays bowling to the likes of Australian players such as Simon Katich and Michael Bevan.

At the same time he shared the bowling duties with the likes of Stuart Clark, Stuart MacGill and Greg Matthews.

Now firmly settled back in Dubbo, the 33-year-old has gone about reshaping the city’s cricketing landscape.

It’s a task he admits to taking great pride in and one he wants to continue for a few years yet.

“Mitchell O’Connor and myself had a landscaping business in Sydney and it was going quite well but it’s so expensive to live down there and own your own place, so I came back and so did Mitch,” Cox said.

“I did a lot of work in the off-season to get myself right because I was injured when I got back but I got myself fit and we have had the bulk of the rep players training since late July.

“That is paying off with our Dubbo rep team performing well in the SCG Cup and a lot of our guys going on to represent Macquarie Valley and Western.

“We’ve got a bunch of talented players like Ian Redpath, Tom Quilter, Sam Pararajasingham and Paul Hulthen who are relatively new to town and they have brought a fresh enthusiasm with them as well.

“That showed against Parkes recently. Some of the guys that have been beaten by them before were expecting it to happen again but the new guys just said “they can be beaten” and we did it.”

Just recently, Cox was picked to play for NSW Country at the Australian Country Championships in Bunbury, Western Australia from January 3-14.

But while the personal accolades are nice, it’s as an association that Cox wants to improve cricket in the city.

“I’ve been away for 10 years and it seems like its the same guys scoring runs now as it was back then,” he said.

“Guys like John Colwell, Brad (Cox’s brother) and Jason Green were all dominating 10 years ago.

“It would be good if we could bring the next crop of young players through to step up to rep level and dominate like those guys have.

“It’s a bit the same in the bowling. We had Don Nash, Cameron Humphries and Andrew Zell bowling well when I was here before and now those guys have gone.

“Nobody seems to have really stepped up to dominate as a bowler for Dubbo so we are taking a lot of young guys, Jacob Harvey for example, and working with them to try and bring them along.”

After 10 years in Sydney and a three-year stint as a professional in England, Cox surprised when asked who was the best batsmen he has ever bowled to.

“Matthew Phelps is a guy that played first-class cricket but never got to play for Australia but he was very good and Michael Bevan was also amazing,” Cox said.

“For sheer hitting though it’s a guy nobody has probably heard too much of. A guy named Brett van Diesen that I came across in Grade cricket in Sydney.

“He was just a pure striker who could tear anyone apart on his day.”