Elgar still hungry for trophies with Essex

Dean Elgar played 86 Tests and eight one-dayers for South Africa before retiring from international cricket

Former South Africa opener Dean Elgar is determined to win trophies with Essex following a frustrating first season with the club.

Elgar filled the gap at Chelmsford left by Sir Alastair Cook's retirement in 2023 and was their leading scorer in the County Championship with 1,144 runs.

But they only finished fourth behind champions Surrey and silverware also eluded them in the white-ball formats.

"That's why I'm still playing, I want to win trophies. A few things go our way next season and who knows, we may have one or two," he told BBC Essex Sport.

"We've had a few things this season that weren't in our favour which obviously played a part in us finishing fourth, which isn't ideal.

"On a personal note I'm pretty satisfied with what I've done. (But) I'm still a cricketer that wants to play for wins. My personal performances don't really matter much if we're not getting results in our favour."

The 37-year-old still has two years left on his contract with Essex, having previously played county cricket with Surrey and Somerset.

And he believes the progress of young players like Luc Benkenstein and Noah Thain mean the prospects for success are bright.

"You always have to leave an environment in a better place and being a senior player you have to pass on knowledge to those guys," Elgar added.

"The young talent pool that we have is very strong and they just need time on the park to get that extra exposure and I'm pretty sure they're going to have long careers going forward.

"That's how I've always been, to want to pass knowledge on to younger guys but they've got to want to have those conversations as well."

Elgar also played 13 games in the T20 Blast, scoring 331 runs, but ended the season with a tear in his calf for which he will receive treatment back home over the winter, prior to the start of pre-season training in February.

He said that although the increase in the number of franchise cricket tournaments around the world meant it was sometimes harder for clubs to attract the very best overseas players, the standard among the 18 counties was still good.

"The county grind is very competitive," he added.

"Obviously with franchise cricket around now, the overseas players you have coming over are maybe not as equipped as they used to be back in the day but, in saying that, the local players are pretty good - there's a lot of talent out there."

Dean Elgar was speaking to BBC Essex's Victoria Polley