CHRIS Park has revealed to Echosport that he is staying on as Dorset captain for next summer.

The 31-year-old, who has turned out for the county for more than a decade, guided his troops into some fruitful form at the back end of their Championship campaign last summer, including their first three-day victory since 2012 over Hereford-shire back in July.

Alan Willows will remain as head coach of the Dean Park outfit, and all-rounder Jake Lintott will continue to assist the wicketkeeper/batsman as vice-captain.

Commenting on his how the team intends to develop, Park said: “We have started planning our January training programme over three or four weekends and some pre-season friendlies have already been organised with Wiltshire and the Hampshire Second XI.

“Everything that was said about the end of last season was positive and we made big strides, so I am looking forward to consolidating that next year.

“We are not going to try and run before we can walk, the young lads in the side are still young lads but we are looking for improvement in all areas really.”

One man Park is still keen to acquire is former Somerset batsman and Dorset record-breaker Chris Jones, who retired from professional cricket at the end of the season.

“We still haven’t had any final decision from Chris,” Park added.