Unfinished business

Chris Read tells skysports.com of his desire to land a one-day trophy before calling it quits.

Over 50 international appearances for England, two County Championship titles and eternal adulation from the Nottinghamshire faithful, Chris Read has achieved more than most during his professional career. But, back in Nottingham after an 11-day pre-season camp in Barbados, Read still has unfinished business. A 16th successive season at Trent Bridge awaits Nottinghamshire's favourite son but in that time he has failed to taste one-day glory, either as a player or captain. An agonising Twenty20 final defeat to Leicestershire on home soil in 2006 was the closest Read has come to a white ball trophy and he admits he is desperate to put that right before calling time on his career. "I haven't managed to lift a trophy or be part of a trophy-lifting side in white ball cricket in my career so it's a personal ambition of mine to do that before I retire," Read told skysports.com. "That said, I always feel that the Championship is the pinnacle, like the club does, simply because it's the hardest competition to win. You've got to play successfully and competitively over six months of the year in changing conditions from April through to September. It's the true test of the side." Nottinghamshire, who last won a one-day trophy back in 1991, endured a disappointing campaign by their high standards last season, finishing fifth in Division One of the County Championship, while a last-ball defeat to eventual champions Hampshire denied them a day out at Finals Day. A club of Nottinghamshire's stature expect to be challenging for all silverware on offer and Read, although realistic, is confident the current squad is capable of doing so this summer.

Good balance

He added: "It's easy to say at the start of the season that we want to win all three competitions, and that's what we'll be trying to do, but it's not easy and we've never done that before. We've got a good balance of players over red and white ball cricket. We've got guys who won't play white ball cricket but will more or less be ever-present in red ball cricket and we've got other guys who will be involved in both. I feel we are well-placed to compete all in all three competitions." Experienced county campaigners Read and Kiwi quick bowler Andre Adams, with almost 73 years between them, topped the batting and bowling charts for Notts in first-class cricket last season. And, while obviously pleased to be contributing significantly at an advanced stage of his career, Read expects a better return from a number of his international-calibre batsmen this term. "I'll always look to be competing with my own players in terms of run-scoring, I think healthy competition within the squad to score the most hundreds, runs, take the most wickets is brilliant," Read said. "Back in 2004/2005 season when we had David Hussey and Stephen Fleming as overseas players I remember the competition for scoring runs within the batsmen was at its highest. If you didn't get runs in the first-innings you knew you might not get a go in the second so it was a case of getting them while you can. "If that culture can grow within our changing room now, that would be great. We've got some fantastically talented batsmen in Alex Hales, James Taylor, Riki Wessels, these are the guys who should be targeting 1,000-plus runs in the Championship. I'm sure they are, I know they're capable and it'd be great to see them have breakthrough seasons."