Captaincy saga behind him, Daryl Mitchell sets his sights high

When Worcestershire announced in September that captain Daryl Mitchell would not be leading the county in 2017, he took to Twitter to inform his followers that he had not resigned but had been sacked. He described his 'shock' at the 'devastating' news and three months on, that disappointment remains. Despite that, Mitchell has committed his future to the club with a new four-year contract and is focused on moving on.

"I think you naturally calm down a little," Mitchell tells Cricbuzz. "I was very, very disappointed and I'm happy to say that I didn't necessarily agree with the decision. I've had some good, open and honest conversations with coach Steve Rhodes and the Chief Executive. With signing the new contract they have backed me for the next four years. It's not too often a 33 year-old gets a four-year deal so that was obviously pleasing. Hopefully now we can all move on and draw a line under it."

Did he consider leaving the club? "Throughout my career, I've always thought I'd be a one-club man but something like this happens that you don't agree with and you do evaluate things a little bit. Ultimately, I've signed the new deal and one thing I've learnt is to expect the unexpected I suppose. With that security of a four year deal, I'm happy to commit my future to Worcestershire like I always planned."

After six years of Mitchell's captaincy and failure to achieve promotion back to Division One last season, it may have been the right time to freshen things up but he still has an important role to play, offering support to new captain Joe Leach and young players such as Brett D'Oliveira and Joe Clarke.

"I'll give Leachy my full support and as much advice as he wants really. It's his ship but I'll lend a hand anyway I can and particularly still have an influence on the young batters to help them improve and develop their games. It's still an exciting time for me personally and we have some good young batters to work with here."

Mitchell himself is in the latter stages of his career, an experienced county pro, rightly regarded as one of the most consistent batsmen in the county game. Orthodox and technically excellent, he is a classical opener who has a proven ability to bat for long periods, a player good enough to score 10,000 first-class runs. Yet he admits that last season's returns with the bat fell short of his usual standards - although 873 Championship runs at 34.92 is not to be sniffed at - and without the captaincy, he hopes to return to his best form in all competitions.

"I had a reasonably poor start in the Championship last year but I had a really good second half so I wouldn't like to use the captaincy as an excuse as I've had some very good seasons when captain. I've always been thorough in my preparation and I'll be the same this year. I want to try and develop my one-day skills a bit more with some more power hitting and reverse sweeps but I'm just looking forward to getting started."

In 2014, Mitchell scored five centuries in his 1,334 Championship runs at 58.00 as well as another 600 in one-day cricket, which had him talked about as a potential England player. The international call didn't come then, and is unlikely to come now, but Mitchell still has plenty of cricket left in the tank and plenty of things he wants to achieve, including getting his career average of 39.40 above the 40 mark.

"I'd love to win another trophy too. I've only won the one trophy, the Pro40 in 2007, so another one would be high on the list. For me, it's about scoring as many runs, in as many competitions as I can, trying to get the club in to Division One. Everyone wants to play their cricket in the best division and I've been promoted five times since I've been here but unfortunately relegated five times as well."

The gap in quality between the first and second divisions of the County Championship has clearly grown over recent seasons. "The bigger clubs have pooled talent to be able to compete across all three formats. Players are happier to be rested at times, taking a long-term view of their careers. Depth is the main difference. The top sides have six, seven, eight top quality seamers who would walk in to a lot of Division Two sides. If you play in the second division, you know that sometimes if you can get through the opening bowlers, you'll get a release later. Same with the batting. Teams in Division One have players at eight, nine and ten scoring hundreds."

Can that gap be bridged by smaller counties? "I think it is difficult certainly, but by no means do I think it's impossible. Our model is to try and produce our own players and I think that's important for a club our size. If you can add one or two quality recruits to that then hopefully you're in a position to compete. Last time we were in Division One, although we were relegated, it was as well as we played. I thought we showed some real good signs but bad sessions really did cost us.

"I think there's a lot of good coming out of county cricket. England lost in India, as most teams do, but you look at some of the pluses like Keaton Jennings and Haseeb Hameed, county cricket has produced those two players who have taken to Test cricket pretty well. There's a lot of good young players and a lot of strength in depth. Hopefully the new schedule will improve the quality further."

The biggest development in Mitchell's career has been the rise of Twenty20. "It's allowed lads like myself who haven't had the opportunity to play for England to play in front of big crowds. Our derby at Edgbaston every year attracts 15 or 20 thousand people. It's been fantastic and the skills the batters and the bowlers are developing is amazing really. Guys at 17 or 18 in our academy who come through to the staff will play a reverse sweep first ball as if they're playing a forward defensive. The T20 generation can play all the shots and certainly more than I've got in my locker."

In that, Mitchell does himself a disservice. He is a fine player, a loyal and hard-working professional of the type the English domestic game is built on. His new contract proves just how important Worcestershire still regard him even without the captaincy. Expect plenty more runs from Mitchell's bat over the next few seasons.