The 23-year-old from Milton Keynes, who is based at Bath University, has already started working with the players, who include former England captain Marcus Trescothick.

Darren Venes the strength and conditioning coach at Somerset, said: "We have brought Craig on board to help with some technical sprint work and he comes down to the County Ground and spends an hour a week.

"The sessions have gone very well but, initially, the boys found it very hard work and were pretty stiff at the end of the first session.

"The players need to be quicker and we must improve our speed and explosive power, so bringing Craig Pickering in to give us some technical assistance is helping with this."

James Hildreth, the Somerset batsman who is considered one of England's most promising young players, said: "It's been awesome to be involved with a top class sprinter like Craig and he has made me realise just how much I still need to learn about my running technique.

"In the sessions that we have had with him so far he has already shown us ways of sprinting better.

"Hopefully, what we are doing with him will help us getting to the pace of the ball a little bit quicker when we are in the field, but also because we are running with a better technique the risks of us getting injured will be reduced considerably."

Pickering was the European Indoor 60 metres silver medallist in 2007 and a member of the British 4x100m team that won a bronze medal in that year's World Championships in Osaka.

He said: "I have been brought in to develop their running techniques and to help them avoid getting needless injuries.

"The main aim is to tighten up their running technique and I think it is all going pretty well.

"I have never played cricket so being involved with professional cricketers is a whole new experience for me and what they do is very different to what I am involved in.

"Sprinting over 100 metres takes about 10 seconds whereas they can play in a game that lasts over five days and while even the Twenty20 is slightly shorter it is much longer that what I do so it is a very different sort of sporting experience."

Pickering is trying to rebuild his career after being responsible for Britain's team getting knocked out in the heat of the 4x100m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics when he started his run too early and the team were disqualified (pictured).

He said: "My own training is going pretty well at the moment but you never know how well it has gone until you race which I start doing in February, so that will be the big test.

"I am injury free and everything is progressing nicely for me.

"Taking part in the London Olympics in 2012 is obviously a big target but next year there are the European Championships [in Barcelona] and the Commonwealth Games [in New Delhi] which are quite important, then the World Championships after that so there is plenty going on between so its taking it year on year really."