From reading to leading

County captains are like clothes and televisions: they don't last as long as they once did. The two great county sides of the 1970s and '80s, Middlesex and Essex, each went 20 years with only two captains. These days, many counties replace their captains as if they were sponsored cars. Justin Langer, who is taking over at Somerset, will be the fourth official captain there in three years. Middlesex, once so monogamous, leapt into the arms of a new captain in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2005. Now they have done it again. But this time the choice is an intriguing one, which harks back to their halcyon days.

The new captain is Ed Smith. He has the appetite - for runs - of Mike Gatting, who captained Middlesex from 1983 to 1997: even in his quieter seasons, like last year, Smith tends to end up averaging 40. And he has the intellectual clout of Mike Brearley, who captained Middlesex from 1971 to 1982.

Like Brearley, Smith went to Cambridge, starred in the exam rooms as well as at Fenner's (reading history, he got a double first, something that narrowly eluded Brearley), has written acclaimed books about the game and has a life beyond it - Brearley was a don as a young man, Smith is a literary critic. From the outside it looks as if Middlesex are going back to an old leadership model: the brainbox.

On the inside it may not feel like that at all. Ask Smith why he thinks he has been made captain and he does not even mention brains. Or any other quality of his own. "Middlesex underwent a review process," he says. "There was a consensus that there was a need for clear direction in the leadership of the club. That was the brief that was given to me. And obviously they are confident that I can provide it. I was interviewed by a panel of three and it was a very thorough process. The whole squad was invited to apply. Four did, three stayed in, one dropped out and it went on for several weeks."

The two runners-up were Ed Joyce, now an England one-day opener, who will be vice-captain (the deputy Ed), and Chris Silverwood, the former Yorkshire fast bowler who was perhaps the most successful signing by any county last year. Smith pays tribute to both. "Ed's going to have a central role. He's very intelligent, he has an analytical mind, relates well to people. I would always be keen to know what he thought. And Silverwood will be leading the bowling group. I'm keen that we should develop a fast-bowling culture and Yorkshire used to have that a few years ago. Chris is a very passionate, competitive, strong personality, the perfect man to lead that culture."

He also has generous words for the incoming coach, Richard Pybus - "an obviously original and intelligent coach, who has had a very successful spell at Titans in South Africa". But what about Smith himself - did he go into the interview with a manifesto? "Not exactly. I don't think you come into a job and impose your values on a group; I think it rises from within the group. The first thing successful leaders do is to connect and discover what's working well and reinforce those things. As you do that, you're also discovering areas that need bolstering. Within the team, with all the experience we have, a lot of players between 28 and 31 who have played over 100 games and played for England or been close, there is enough competitiveness and ambition to make my job easier. So I want to empower other people and enable them to express themselves."

It sounds almost self-effacing. Smith laughs at the suggestion, as if nobody has ever accused him of that before. "I think it works. I don't mean to a strike a self-effacing note. I think strong players make for strong teams."

We are talking at Smith's flat, 10 minutes' drive from Lord's. It is in Bayswater, the scruffier neighbour of Notting Hill, one of London's most upmarket areas. Ed's flat is alarmingly tidy. The erudite bookshelves, loaded with fiction and ideas as well as sports books, were expected; the spick-and-span cleanliness and bright decor were not. At university the cleverest students' rooms tend to be like the dons', dust-filled dens of creative chaos, teeming with precarious piles of books. Ed's place is not like that at all. It is highly organised, in a welcoming way.

Something similar applies to the man himself. He is as bright as you expect but also affable, with a ready laugh. Much has been made of his privileged background - when he played for England in 2003, his team-mates called him a jazzer and the Mirror christened him Posh Splice - but his parents are teachers, not a duke and duchess. Home was not some mansion: when Vikram Seth, the novelist, who had been a pupil of his father's, came to stay the night, the teenage Ed gave up his bedroom.

Later he became friends with Seth, who said this about him in a joint newspaper interview in 2004: "He's an old head on young shoulders, but very young at the same time. His intelligence is wide-ranging and I find him adventurous. He may be easy-going but he's got a steely resolve ... He wants to make something of himself - he's not one of those people who come out of university and think, 'Oh well, I can coast along on charm.'"

For most of his career that steely resolve has been trained on England. His international debut came when he was keeping a diary for publication, On and Off the Field (Penguin, 2004), and it became a painfully vivid document of some emotional extremes. "My ambition," he wrote, "has always been to excel for England, not just play for England." For one tantalising day his wish was granted: after receiving his England cap, "the most perfect thing I have ever owned", he made a punchy 64 against South Africa at Trent Bridge, helping England to a match-winning, series-turning total. But in four more innings, he made only 23 runs and, although he had been part of a winning team, his place went to Graham Thorpe, who was making his way back from marital traumas. Two of the pitches were treacherous; on the third Smith got a debatable decision. He has seldom figured in selection gossip since.

Does he still have England ambitions? "I'm not thinking about it. I'm completely focused on Middlesex and I'm enjoying that. It's the first time that I've not had half an eye on England. I watch for my friends, Ed Joyce, Jamie Dalrymple, Andrew Strauss, Middlesex men, I wish them well and follow their scores. But my thoughts are with Middlesex at the moment. Now, I've always been someone who wanted to play for England. To succeed for England. I can't imagine that's going to disappear: I'd be very surprised if it ever went. But I don't think thinking about England will make playing for England again more likely. The best thing I can do is throw myself into the challenge of Middlesex. And if England comes, that'd be fantastic. I doubt I'll ever relinquish the ambition. Certainly there's unfinished business."

He is right to feel it is "not sensible" to judge anyone on five innings. Many fine players have not done much in their first few Tests and giving people a decent go is supposed to be part of England's philosophy. My hunch is that Smith will resurface, as Nasser Hussain did, twice, after three-year spells in the cold. Part of England's undoing in Australia was that they banked on youth in the absence of Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick; they could do with a Mike Hussey or two. And captaincy, which can take a man out of himself and also give him more prominence, could be the catalyst. We talk about the flurry of captains Middlesex have got through lately (see panel on p48). "Well," Smith points out, "Gus retired and Strauss probably would have carried on for a while if he hadn't been picked for England."

Getting picked for England, getting picked by Fleet Street: both are things that could happen to Smith. "Going back to that interview process, something I did demonstrate was a clear commitment to Middlesex. One of the difficulties I've faced is that people sometimes imagine I have some exit strategy. I don't. At the moment nothing excites me more than playing cricket. I enjoy getting to know England, I enjoy battle, I enjoy being exposed, I enjoy the rawness and vulnerability of being a professional sportsman, I enjoy the ups and downs. I wouldn't want life to be easier or more pallid. I embrace all the frustrations of professional sport. I don't want to live without it. You can write until you're quite elderly but you can't play cricket. And I've never felt more excited than I do about cricket at the moment."

As he says this, you can suddenly picture him giving quite a forceful pep talk. So what will his themes be? "First, engagement. I want us to take a more close and active interest in trying to win the game. We've all played against teams who, when you go out to bat against them, there's a closing-in. And then with other teams there is almost the opposite, a stepping-back. We need everyone buying into the sense that we're not going to give them any runs. It's about focus, it's about interest.

"Secondly, practice. Because we play at Lord's, which is a great privilege, we can't always get the same practice facilities every week. We need to take responsibility for our own game. Practice should never be a chore, it's got to have intensity. I don't feel we practise as well as we might."

Smith's last taste of captaincy was a sour one. It was at Kent in 2004, when he deputised for the injured David Fulton. "As Worcestershire piled up 453," Wisden reported, "it became obvious that Smith was getting no support from [Andrew] Symonds or, to a lesser extent, [Rob] Key." Fulton even attempted to take charge as 12th man, something the laws prohibit. Symonds, as acting captain of the Twenty20 team, then dropped Smith, even though he was in form. Mike Denness, the chairman of cricket, resigned, saying "the lads' behaviour" was "despicable". Smith left at the end of the season, along with Alex Loudon. He remains tight-lipped about it, saying only: "What was in the 2005 Wisden was factually true, though a long way from the full story."

The episode may be one reason why he says, "I used to be ambivalent about captaincy. I've always been interested in strategy but that's a slightly different thing." Now, though, he is raring to go. It is clear from the way he talks about it that what interests him most is how people work as a group. Asked about captains he has played under before, he says pointedly, "The ones I had most respect for were the ones who I felt always had the best interest of the club at heart." Ask him what type of captain he will be and he says, "I'll be as natural as I can" - an interesting way of putting it. Which will mean attacking more than defending? "Yes."

On getting the job he said he hoped Middlesex would play "attractive, successful cricket". Was it significant that attractive came first? "No. Probably the rhythm of the sentence. Winning is the most important thing but, as a secondary consideration, playing a good brand of cricket is very important. I think it's too early in the piece to see a contradiction between the two. As a group of individuals we play best when we express ourselves."

Shades of Vaughan's mantra. "I think so. Fearlessness is vital even if you're a defensive player. I want the players to have a go, to be fearless, and they'll surprise themselves. You don't want a culture of blame. Too often in sport too much criticism is heaped on something that happens long after the game has been decided."

We talk about game plans. "Game plan has become a sexy phrase. The best game plan is an uncluttered mind and a good set of skills in your kitbag, whether you're a batsman or bowler. Adam Hollioake understood that at Surrey. He didn't over-plan. Thinking you can over-schematise success runs against good sport. You have to take the stabilisers off and allow people to go out there and make decisions." The conversation comes back to intelligence. Presumably it will help at times with his new job but might it not also get in the way? If, say, he is talking to a young bowler with a couple of GCSEs?

"Interesting question. Two points. Middlesex traditionally had strong captains - one of them was Mike Brearley. He left the club in a good state and that's something I'd like to do. And Mike Gatting was a very forthright, positive captain who embodied the club, as a batsman, as a force, as someone who wanted to win. He'd come back from England and get a hundred for Middlesex. He was also a big character in a different style. Certainly the club was set up around a big captain.

"In terms of intellect, I'm very sceptical to even use it as a broad term. So many clever people can be so silly. The two forms of intelligence I aspire to are clarity and good judgement. Game-playing intellectually and being clever for the sake of it has never really interested me. What interests me is using my mind to reach clear positions and to be right more times than not. You're never going to be always right but I think those two things should help to connect and communicate with people." He will surely be an interesting captain. He may even be built to last.