One of the first things Wendell Smith wants to do at his new job at Western Stars is keep the nucleus of young players, including nephew Clay Darrell who has been rumoured to be considering joining his father, Clay Smith, at Cleveland County.

The club confirmed that Smith would be taking on the coaching role this season after quitting Premier Division St David’s.

Smith believes the move is an exciting challenge as he tries to get Stars back into the top flight after two failed promotion attempts in the last three seasons.

Nyon Steede, last season’s captain, has confirmed that he would be stepping down from his role.

“Because they are playing in the lower division I know Clay’s son was planning to go down to Cleveland, but he may now stay,” Smith said.

“It would be nice if a couple of former players came back. Like Andrew Bascome said in football, I’m not about stealing other people’s players, but I have a lot of confidence in my coaching ability and after about three weeks or a month the players will realise what they have.”

Smith has also made one specific demand on the club as he seeks to revive their fortunes.

“The one thing I asked most from Western Stars, and told them the most important thing to me as a coach, is having a training wicket to practice on,” Smith revealed.

“I don’t like training in the nets, the guys are hitting the ball into the nets and the bowlers and batsmen are arguing about whether that would be out or would it have been four.

“They had a wonderful wicket down at St David’s and excellent support staff. We trained every single week in the middle and maybe only two weeks out of 16 that we did not train in the middle, and on a practice wicket that was match standard.

“That was a big bonus, the bowlers can run in, the fielders can be placed where they are supposed to be and you make your batsmen run their runs.”

Smith spoke with Willis Dill, the Western Stars president, on Friday and after another meeting on Monday agreed to take the job.

“He asked me about the job on Friday and on Monday I delivered to him a sheet with 30 different things I want to talk to the team about when I meet with them on Sunday,” Smith said.

“I gave them a list of equipment I would like to have and the other thing is a contract proposal.

“I want to put up a bulletin board in the clubhouse with attendance in training and stats so that the spectators can see how the guys are doing and that there is accountability.

“I’ll meet with them on Sunday and we’ll have a good talk for about an hour. I’m looking to make the programme very professional. I used to have a saying in St George’s that you don’t have to be a professional to train like one.

“The first thing I said to Willis and Gershon [Gibbons] is I don’t like delving in mediocrity. Probably my biggest accomplishment was assisting the national team in 2005 that went to the World Cup.

“Neil Speight [the BCB chief executive] said something the other night, he said unfortunately the BCB is judged by what the national team does and when I thought about that he has a significant point.

“They can have all these wonderful things, academies and camps, but because Bermuda are losing people will judge the BCB on that.

“The clubs need to be uplifted in order for the national programme to be better.

“As a professional who deals with teachers on a regular basis, man management is a very important part of team success, how to handle different players and that’s where I think I’ve grown a lot over the years.”