He has played 17 Tests and 71 one-day internationals and been a cornerstone of the most successful Sussex side in the county's long history.

But even at 35 Murray Goodwin is still challenging himself to become a better player.

Only Matt Prior has scored more runs this season than the ultra-consistent Goodwin, who was hoping to lodge another 123 runs against Durham this weekend and pass 10,000 in first-class cricket for the county.

His recent hundred against Somerset was his 35th for the county and by the end of this season it is not inconceivable that he could have overtaken James Langridge, Jim Parks (39) and Paul Parker (37) on the all-time list.

The new three-year contract he signed last December, which will keep him at Sussex until the end of the 2010 season, gives Goodwin ample opportunity to climb even further up the list of Sussex's leading century-makers.

The records of John Langridge and CB Fry, who both lodged 68, are probably safe forever but this is Goodwin's eighth summer with Sussex and he if he maintains his current average of four hundreds per season he could get close to 50, a mark reached by only two other players - Ranjitshinji (58) and George Cox junior (50).

"I still enjoy the challenge of challenging myself and I want to keep playing at as high a level as possible for as long as I can," he said.

One such challenge came during the winter when Goodwin played for Ahmedabad Rockets in the Indian Cricket League.

It was the first time he had played there since 1998, when he toured with Zimbabwe, and although his statistics (27 runs in six games) were not much to write home about, Goodwin enjoyed the experience and is committed to returning for the next two tournaments.

The ICL did not have nearly the same profile as the Indian Premier League, which reaches its climax next week, and Goodwin, batting as low as six in some games, had little opportunity to build an innings.

He said: "I loved it. I think it did a fantastic job in terms of raising the profile of Indian cricket because it gave an opportunity to a lot of good cricketers over there.

"As well as guys like me, there were Indian youngsters in each team and I'm sure they all learned a lot from playing with more experienced guys.

"It attracted a lot of publicity and some good crowds. When we played Mushy's team (Lahore Badshahs) there were 18,000 in the ground and most of our matches had between 7-10,000.

"I'm back there next year and it's almost unfinished business for me. It was frustrating to be batting so low down because in a few games you only faced a handful of balls which doesn't give you much time to do anything."

Salaries in the ICL are nothing like that the mega-bucks earned by the likes of Andrew Symonds and Adam Gilchrist in the IPL and Goodwin admitted he was not reimbursed as well as some of the ICL's more high-profile names, such as New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond.

But his contract, as well as his Sussex deal which will eventually extend his association with the county to 11 seasons, gives Goodwin the security all players at that stage of their careers need. He will surely get a well-deserved benefit during the next three years at Hove as well.

Last winter was one of the first since he quit Test cricket in 2001 that he was not playing abroad after spells with Western Australia and Warriors in South Africa.

Instead, Goodwin helped his local team Bunbury win their league back in Perth for the first time in ten years, although he was not there for the celebrations because of ICL commitments.

It was a familiar scenario. He missed Sussex's Championship-clinching win over Worcestershire last September because of a family funeral and when Chris Adams was lifting the trophy Goodwin was following events via the internet in the business centre of his holiday hotel in Bali.

"We went there for a break after the funeral and basically I followed the last day on the internet, it was a pretty tense experience!" he said.

"When Lancashire got close to around 400 with only seven wickets down I thought they were going to win it but fortunately we came through and the first thing I did was email the guys.

"It was a fantastic effort by our team. I think we are still evolving as a side and so are the guys in it, especially the youngsters who are coming through.

"Players like myself, Chris and Mushy are not going to be around forever but if we can continue to set high standards which the others can learn from then that's great. It certainly keeps me on my toes."