DERBYSHIRE captain Wayne Madsen is expected to replace Ramsbottom’s prolific South African all-rounder Daryn Smit as their sub pro for tomorrow’s home game against Accrington.

Smit, dubbed as “superhuman” for his batting exploits this term, has returned home for the start of the domestic campaign, leaving Rammy to find a substitute professional for their last four games.

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Smit’s fellow countryman is certainly not short of experience in the first class game.

Named Derbyshire’s captain in 2012, the off-break bowler and hard hitting batsman enjoyed his best season the following year, becoming the first player in the country to reach 1,000 runs Championship runs in the First Division.

And in a further development, the Acre Bottom committee have asked former skipper Jon Fielding to take charge until the end of the season.

Ramsbottom have already agreed a deal for Smit to return in 2016, after a run-laden season that saw him blast 1,248 runs at a blistering average of 113, and reel in 74 wickets.

Captain Fielding admitted his side would miss someone of Smit’s stature and hailed the all-rounder for his performances in helping Ramsbottom into second in the table.

He said: “To score the amount of runs Daryn did was an absolutely unbelievable achievement, particularly as Rammy is a big ground and scoring is not always easy there.

“He is the ultimate professional and, once again, was a credit to Ramsbottom on and off the field.”

Fielding who skippered Ramsbottom from 2010 to 2014 added: “The young players have learned so much from him. Daryl never threw his wicket away, and always built an innings carefully.

“He is a run machine, and you also have to remember all the wickets he has taken.

“We’ve not had a great summer, so subsequently the tracks haven’t really got fast, but Daryn got his head down and produced some wonderful innings.”

Ramsbottom’s title hopes all but vanished following last weekend’s defeat to East Lancs.

Fielding admitted: “That’s it now, Burnley have won the title.

“The East Lancs fixture was our final chance to close the gap, and now we’ll just have to concentrate on claiming the runners-up spot.”

But with Smit again providing the firepower next season, Fielding believes Ramsbottom can challenge even harder for a championship trophy they last won in 2010.

“It might sound a bit strange, but it has proved a bit of a disappointing season because apart from Daryn’s incredible campaign we’ve not scored enough runs.

“We’ve not been able to produce the volume of runs that we’d have liked and we’ve all got improvements to make next season.

“If we can do that and Daryn continues in the same sort of form then we can make a big go of trying to win the championship.”

Following tomorrow’s clash with sixth-placed Accrington, Ramsbottom are on the road on Sunday when they make the trip to struggling Bacup.

It will now need a quite miraculous set of results over the final few weeks to see Ramsbottom haul in long-time leaders Burnley at the top of the table.