There was no question about the quality within Durham’s ranks but the questions were about temperament and their ability to cope when put under pressure.
As such, Western Australian Campbell decided that it was time to get tough during the off-season and so the squad embarked upon the challenge of scaling Britain’s three highest peaks – Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon – within 24 hours.
“Basically we wanted to test the players mentally and put them in situations they didn’t really enjoy,” he said.
Campbell jokingly recalls the adventure as “absolute torture”, but the shared experience of facing up to adversity was one for everyone’s memory banks.
After a poor time on the field, the other kneejerk reaction can be to change everything, but the director of cricket Marcus North, head coach Campbell and crucially captain Alex Lees all stayed in post.
However, Campbell was firm in his belief in giving Lees more backing following a tough first year in the post after taking over from Scott Borthwick.
“It’s very easy to throw blame at the leaders when things are not going so well,” he said. “But I felt that we hadn’t supported him enough.
“We needed to create an extra layer for him, so Alex wasn’t taking on everything all day, every day. We put a leadership group together, which has worked out extremely well for us. That took a lot of pressure off Alex.
“We believe we have a very talented squad with batting and bowling, which everyone talks about. We had to get the best out of it but to come back the way we have, which has been pretty brutal at times, has been pretty pleasing to watch.”
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