CAPTAIN Chris Read is unsure whether his future beyond this season will lie with Nottinghamshire.
He has been at Trent Bridge for 15 years, leading the side to two County Championship titles and Saturday's impressive victory in the YB40 final.
But he has struggled for form during this campaign.
And even if Read does sign another contract with the club, doubts remain over his captaincy of the side – with the likes of James Taylor potentially ready to step in to the position.
Speaking after Notts' historic win at Lord's, Read said: "The club have offered me a contract but with the situation we've been in, with our precarious position in the championship and with this final coming up, we decided we would park it until the end of the season and see where we are at.
"We'll have a good sit down and work out where the club needs to go, where I need to go and how we can build Notts for the future."
And Read didn't shirk any questions about his lack of form during the season – scoring just 361 runs in the County Championship at an average of 19.
He said: "I've been terrible. In all honesty I've done nothing different, I've worked so, so hard hitting balls left, right and centre and it just hasn't worked for me this year."
But Read hit an impressive 53 in Saturday's final against Glamorgan at Lord's, giving Notts a platform to win the game.
"I've been consistent for a lot of years now so it's had me thinking this season, what exactly is going wrong," he said.
"But at the end of the day sometimes it takes a big game like this to say hang on, all it's about is watching that ball and trying to do the best for your team. And that's what I set out to do from the start and I hit them pretty well."
Speaking to the Post, Notts director of cricket Mick Newell said despite Read's uncertainty he can't see why the captain would leave.
He added: "Ready's struggled with the bat this year, he's really struggled in four-day cricket.
"He's starting to doubt his ability but I thought he was fantastic (in the YB40 final on Saturday).
"Ready's contract is up and I want him to play at Notts as long as he wants to.
"As far as I am concerned his future will be at Notts – he's been offered a contract. We haven't nailed down the financial details of that because we put that on hold while we concentrated on these important weeks.
"But he will be offered a good contract and hopefully he will stay – I don't see why he would leave."
But while Newell was clear in his desire for his long-term skipper to extend his stay at the club, his role at captain is less clear.
Newell said: "That's a key discussion that we need to have – I need to know how he feels about it.
"He's always said to me that if I could find somebody else to do it he would stand aside and I think we are probably approaching the stage where we could try some alternatives if he's had enough and I suspect he might have."
