With Chris Cairns having ruled himself out of contention, fellow cricket international Chris Harris will again captain Canterbury this year as he did for much of last season.
Harris, 34, led Canterbury for the bulk of last summer although four players captained the side after Cairns was originally named, with CraigMcMillan and Peter Fulton in control for a match each.
Cairns was originally chosen with the expectation he would be available for provincial play more often.
But he worked his way back into both the New Zealand test and one-day teams, restricting him to just four appearances for Canterbury.
Now Cairns, who was married last Saturday for the second time, has retired from test cricket and is only available for one-day internationals as he scales down his New Zealand career.
He told the Canterbury selectors he was unavailable for captaincy consideration, but panel convener Craig Thiele said they were more than happy to continue with one-day international Harris.
"Harry was so warmly received by the players and management. He's got the X-factor about him and brings the best out of the guys," Thiele said yesterday.
Thiele was aware the selectors could be tempting fate again by appointing Harris after Cairns made so few appearances last season.
"We want Harry to be playing for New Zealand as much as possible of course, but if he is not we want him in charge of Canterbury."
Harris first played for Canterbury in 1989-1990 and has scored the third most runs for the province: 4444 from 64 matches.
Canterbury lost the finals of the State Shield one-day and State Championship first-class competitions last season.
Thiele said with nine Canterbury players contracted to the Black Caps there was plenty of leadership material among the ranks if changes had to be made.
He said McMillan was a contender, depending on his New Zealand future.
Meanwhile, the season's first Canterbury 11 have been named for a trial match at Timaru against South Canterbury on Sunday: Peter Carey, Tim Papps, James Hantz, Iain Robertson, Grant Elliott, Brent Findlay, Simon Allan, James Ward, Craig Ross, Michael Davidson, Leighton Burtt, Byron Newton.
