SUSSEX are confident they can keep Rory Hamilton-Brown despite Surrey’s offer to make him captain.

Chairman Jim May is canvassing the opinions of Sussex board members before deciding whether to grant Surrey permission to talk to the 22-year-old.

Any decision is unlikely to be made until Hamilton-Brown returns from South Africa, where he is currently with England’s Performance Squad, later this month.

Sussex have offered Hamilton-Brown an improved three-year contract and at their next meeting will implore him to continue his development at Hove rather than accept the added responsiblity of captaincy when he has so little first-class experience.

In five seasons since he joined the Surrey staff in 2005 Hamilton-Brown has only played eight-first class games.

Chief executive Dave Brooks said: “We are far from resigned to losing Rory.

“We believe his cricketing development remains best served with Sussex.”

Whether Hamilton-Brown can resist an opportunity to captain a side where he has strong links remains to be seen but Sussex believe if he turned down Surrey the opportunity to lead a county would arise later in his career.

Brooks added: “Rory does not have Board consent to talk to Surrey so it is hypothetical to talk about whether he is too young or inexperienced to be captaining a county.

“But we would argue that if you are a cricketer of his calibre those opportunities will arise further down the line. We are convinced we can still make a powerful argument for Rory to stay.”

Surrey’s director of cricket Chris Adams would not comment other than to confirm an approach was made to Jim May by his Surrey counterpart on November 13.

But I understand reports that Hamilton-Brown is being tempted with a £150,000-a-year contract are wide of the mark.

l Former Scotland international Asim Butt has died in his sleep at the age of 42. Butt played for Scotland 71 times.