‘I’d love to lead Durham one day’

Sep 17 2008 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

WILL Smith has admitted he would love to succeed Dale Benkenstein as Durham captain, but he has still urged the South African to continue to lead the side for at least another year.

Benkenstein has made no secret of his desire to step down when a suitable English replacement was discovered, but while Smith has emerged as a leading candidate to fill his sizeable shoes at the Riverside, the former Durham University student would rather wait a little longer to succeed one of the county’s all-time greats.

Benkenstein (pictured right) has dismissed reports that he has offered to quit as captain at the end of the season but he has told coach Geoff Cook he will hand over the responsibility if the right person wants to take it on.

That could well turn out to be Smith, but the batsman, who has enjoyed a remarkable upturn in fortunes this season, knows the team’s title push is far more important than the captaincy issue at this stage as they prepare to take on Sussex in their penultimate Championship game of the season at Chester-le-Street. “I’ve seen the stories in the paper about Dale and they took me by surprise because he is an excellent captain,” said Smith, who has scored 796 runs in just 10 championship matches this season at an average of 53.06.

“I think he envisaged there would come a time when he could hand over the responsibility, but he is so respected around the club that I hope he carries on, at least for another year.

“I don’t know what has been discussed and, to be honest, while I would absolutely love to captain the side in the future I would rather just concentrate on playing for another year.

“I’ve had a good season and I’m extremely proud of that, but I’d like to focus on doing that again next season.

“I don’t even know if they would offer it to me anyway. It would be a tremendous honour if they did, but we have more important things to worry about at the moment like winning our first County Championship title.”

Durham go into their final home game of the season knowing a victory would set them up for a thrilling final match at Kent next week, but with six teams mathematically in with a chance of winning county cricket’s most prestigious prize, there will be plenty of twists and turns over the next few days.

Durham reached the semi-final of both the Friends Provident Trophy and the Twenty20 Cup and finished third in the Pro 40 League and Smith warned it will be a frustrating season if they miss out in the Championship as well.

He said: “We have been a little unfortunate in all of the three competitions that have finished. We were the bridesmaids in all of them so it will be extra special if we can win the title. It’s an exciting end to the season and we just hope the weather doesn’t ruin things. We want to play as much cricket as we can.”

Smith is close to agreeing a new contract at the Riverside after a season which has seen him out-score Benkenstein, despite playing three games less than his captain.

The 25-year-old is also just 77 runs behind opener Michael Di Venuto having played two games less than the Australian. He added: “It’s great to be up there with those two, but they have been doing it year after year and that is what I’ve got to do. I don’t consider myself to be at their level yet because they have proven they can do it consistently over a long period of time. I’ve done it for one year.

“I am aware of the statistics, but they can lie a little bit.

“It’s much better to get a hundred and win a game than it is to get a hundred in a lost cause, but they don’t tell that story.

“I’d love to score 1,000 runs for the first time, but I’d also happily sacrifice that if it meant Durham win the title. That’s the main objective and that’s all any of us are worrying about as we go into these last two games.”

DURHAM (from): M Stoneman, M Di Venuto, W Smith, S Chanderpaul, D Benkenstein (Captain), P Mustard, P Wiseman, L Plunkett, B Harmison, S Harmison, M Davies, C Thorp, G Breese.