Udal keen to hang on to captaincy

by Kevin Hand
BBC London 94.9 cricket commentator

Udal (left) has no plans to retire from first-class cricket

Shaun Udal has insisted he has no plans to retire and wants to remain as Middlesex captain beyond next season.

Udal, 40, took over at the end of 2008 from Ed Smith but saw his young side struggle in the championship this year.

The former Hampshire spinner told BBC London 94.9: "Nothing has been offered to me yet but hopefully that will be resolved in the next few days.

"I still think I can play properly for another two or three years and if Middlesex want me I'd love to stay."

He added: "If I am captain again next year it will be a great pleasure to continue to do the job. I love it, I enjoy it and I love the players.

"I still think I've got at least two years in me. I'm not going to put a timescale on it and say 'it's only one more year and I'm going', I don't want to do it like that.

"Its a great club, I've enjoyed it here, they've been great to me, there's some good people and some good young players and hopefully I can help them to improve their careers as well.

"The progress that the people have made this year, the young kids, that's something that I feel very proud of and hopefully we can get a championship winning squad together for next season."

Middlesex have failed to gain promotion back to Division One of the County Championship since their relegation in 2006 and their defence of the Twenty20 Cup ended this year at the group stage.

The club reached the quarter-finals of the Friends Provident Trophy and are top of Division Two in the Pro40 but will be toppled if Warwickshire beat Lancashire in the final round of matches on Sunday.

Udal, though, is far from demoralised by what he has seen this season.

"We'll press on and look at options and areas where we can make improvements in the winter," he said.

"Playing together as a side rather than individuals, that's a key area I think we can improve on. Individual performances are great but they don't count for anything unless the team does well so that's an area we have to look at.

This club has been through the mill a lot in the last few years and it now seems to be settled

Shaun Udal

"It was a real test and it's not an excuse but the top six in the last three games averaged 22 years and three or four months.

"It's been tough but that's the way these guys will learn now, (and) you have a chance to look at Adam London, John Simpson, Sam Robson and people like this who've come in and done decent jobs.

"The good thing is we know they can now play at first class level, it's not ideal because we've had so many England call-ups, injuries to key bowlers and people not performing as well as they should have done.

"But we've had some big positives, Tim Murtagh again has 60 championship wickets and Steven Finn's performed brilliantly with the ball."

He added: "One of the biggest compliments I've had this season has been the fact that not once have we seen or heard anything about Middlesex being in turmoil this season, on or off the pitch.

"That's been huge progress because this club has been through the mill a lot in the last few years and it now seems to be settled.

"Gus's (Fraser's) arrival (as managing director of cricket) has helped, so hopefully that will be the case for a while to come. It's nice to hear that when you talk about Middlesex now people don't say it's a club in turmoil."