March 15, 2013 at 2:28 p.m.
Ex-captain David Hemp: I'll revel in new Bermuda role
The former captain and Glamorgan batsman handed over the reins to Stephen Outerbridge last year and admitted he was happy to pass the responsibility over to the younger man.
Hemp, 42, is now champing at the bit to leave the nets of England behind and focus on piling up the runs for his country.
He told the Bermuda Sun: “I think if I’m being honest I’m quite relieved [not to be captain]. There’s a lot of extra baggage, team meetings, umpire meetings — it’ll be nice not to have to go to those things.
“But obviously I don’t think much will change on the field. I won’t be so involved but I still have a role to play as do all the senior players.
“I’ll try to help in the changing room with individuals and on the field if my input is needed.”
Hemp says his door will always be open to Outerbridge if the Bailey’s Bay man wants any advice. Top of the pearls of wisdom list will be the necessity to deliver with the bat.
Hemp said: “It’s an interesting one because I always viewed the captaincy as an added thing. Being a batsman all my career, you still have to deliver.
“I will support Stephen and make sure he doesn’t lose sight of that. Long gone are the days when you are picked because of your captaincy alone — it’s all about performance.
“The hard thing for Stephen is that he makes sure is he makes time for his own batting because once you get to match day you are dragged all over the place.
“For me it will be nice not to have to worry about that and focus a little bit more on my batting.”
Hemp believes the squad that will land in Bermuda have more than enough ability to secure their progress from the Americas section — and he says every player will have a crucial role to play.
He said: “I expect us to win it. For me — and we can talk about potential all we like — if we play solid cricket I believe we can win it. In previous tournaments like this over the past few years we’ve tended to get two out of the three disciplines right – we need to do all three.
“Maybe we’ve ticked the boxes in our batting and bowling but our fielding has let us down. I think everybody has a pivotal role to play. That’s the nature of T20 cricket, you don’t get guys scoring huge hundreds, it’s all about small segments – one over might be crucial.
“Over the competition everyone will play a role — it might be simply someone coming in and getting 10 off 12.”
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