County Cricket / Ralph Ellis / 14 April 2010 /

You can tell it's the new cricket season because they are forecasting more snow next week. Undeterred, Betfair went to meet Will Smith, captain of two times County Champions Durham, to find out about their chances of a hat-trick. . .

Hi Will. We looked you up on Wikipedia - it's brilliant all the films you've been in!

Ha, that's most people's response when they do any research! It's a shame I'm not him, on 20 million dollars a film! There'd be a few upsides.

He's not going to get into the history books for a third County title though. It's not been done since Yorkshire 31 years ago.

It won't be plain sailing for us either. A hell of a lot of hard work has gone into the last few years, and that's fine because we know that to do something similar we will have to improve again. Every player we've got is very driven by that challenge.

What does the County Championship mean in the modern game?

To me it's the number one. It's the one that every cricketer still wants to win and sees as the truest test of ability, whether mental, physical or tactical. I know Twenty20 is rising and all the other concepts are popular, but I think most still hold the Championship dear.

It seems a bit odd that the competition has already started with only two matches. You meet Essex and they've already won a game.

I don't know why that is either, most seasons the first round has seen everyone involved. But it's no problem - we had the game in Abu Dhabi and a two day friendly against Lancashire at Old Trafford that was very useful. We're spot on and ready.

Tell us about Abu Dhabi...

It was great fun, it gave us a pre-season tour that was a real bonus. We had four days of full cricket, and we might have struggled for that over here in the first week of April

And the pink ball?

It played fine, it was a Kookaburra ball, we use the white one in one day competition. The only issues were it was difficult to pick up in twilight when sunlight wasn't having an effect and the floodlights hadn't kicked in, and then one night the dew came into play and it got fairly wet. If there are scientific ways of making it work it can only be a good thing, to bring more people into Test match cricket if it can be played under lights.

How did you find becoming captain last year? You were on a bit of a hiding to nothing taking charge of a team who were already champions...

I couldn't help the timing, it was just the stage of my career where people thought it would benefit both me and the team to take over, and the fact we had just won the title was the last thing from my mind. It was a case of whether I was up to the job, and whether people thought I was, and on both counts I think it went okay.

It must have done as you won it again. What do you think you learned?

Probably that what you don't say is more important than what you do. Being my first year, I maybe tried to exert my own influence too much at times. I think I will be much more comfortable in the role this year.

Will that help your own batting?

I did half expect that to happen, not that I was resigned to it. I just knew I shouldn't beat myself up too much. It's something I'll look to rectify now and hope I can spend more time concentrating on my batting this time.

We know about Paul Collingwood and Graham Onions, who's next off the Durham production line?

The two youngest guys are Ben Stokes and Scott Borthwick. Ben is a solid, powerful hard hitter who is probably a bit more of a batsman at this stage but with a bit of development he will be a high class all-rounder, and Scott a leg-spinner.

He got the headlines with eight wickets against MCC...

Yes, people get very excited when even the slightest notion of an English leg spinner comes up. We will give him the right opportunities and if he performs we'll keep backing him. We think he's going to be pretty special, but any young leg spinner needs to be treated with a slight amount of caution.

How much does the emphasis on producing your own players help weld a team together?

A massive amount. The whole ethos since Durham became a first class county has been based on local players, and people who grow up together and have that feel for the area and the club. It's a great place to play sport because everybody's so passionate.

What can we expect from Steve Harmison?

He'll be as good as ever. I think he's even more excited this year because we have an even more exciting crop of youngsters. There are people constantly looking to get in the team and improve.

He took wickets at The Oval to clinch the Ashes then didn't go on tour. Can he do a job next winter?

I think he can, and I believe he thinks he can too. It's up to him now, they have this young group of bowlers they are trying to nurture, but somebody of Harmy's experience and class and know-how you can never discount. As long as he's fit and firing and taking wickets he has to be thought of. If he's not it will be brilliant for Durham because we'll have him for an extended time and he'll take loads of wickets for us.

Thanks for your time and we've a free £50 bet for your favourite charity...

I'll back Theatrical Moment with £25 to win at [25] and the same to place in the Scottish Grand National. The winnings can go to International China Concern.

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