Harrow's Rajiv Ouseph says he is honoured to be named Team Derby captain for the upcoming National Badminton League season after leading his side to glory in the competition's inaugural campaign last term.

Ouseph was the skipper in a tense final that saw Derby win 3-2 against Loughborough Sport – the Commonwealth medallist winning his match against Henri Hurskainen en route.

This time around Team Derby will be looking for more success but, after seeing several teams strengthen their ranks, Ouseph is sure it will be no easy feat.

However, he says he is relishing the prospect of leading from the front and wants to impart all his wisdom on the young troops when they open up their campaign on Monday November 30 against a Surrey Smashers side who won 4-1 against MK Badminton at the beginning of the month.

“I’m Team Derby captain again this year,” Ouseph said. “I was really proud to be asked last season to be the captain, I think probably age had something to do with it having had a few experiences of international tournaments and stuff like that.

“It was for me to pass on a little bit of experience for the younger players. When there is a little bit of pressure on them, give them a word or two here and there.

“It’s a role I quite enjoy and hopefully next year I can do a good job as well."

“The celebrations were good. It was a good day for our fans, with a lot of them managing to travel down for the finals."

“I think it was really for them that we managed to put a good performance on. We really enjoyed that day but now it’s another season so we’re going to have to look again into being a good solid team for this year.”

It is set to be a busy year for Ouseph with Olympic qualification up for grabs but he insists he is up for the challenge.

“It has been a busy summer,” he added. “We’re on the Olympic qualifying year at the moment so we’ve had a lot of tournaments. We’ve been to Asia three or four times."

“I’ve had some good results, I’ve had a couple of quarter finals of the Superseries tournaments which is good going."

“There’s a European tour of international tournaments coming up so I’ll be going to Denmark, France and to Germany and then the NBL kicks off as well. It’s a really exciting and busy time for us."

“At the moment I’m in a qualifying position for the Olympics so if I can maintain that I’ll be very happy with that."

“My aim is to get in the top 16 ranking and that guarantees you a place in the Olympics so that’s what I’m looking towards. And then just trying to improve my consistency.”

For NBL fixtures, tickets and team news visit nationalbadmintonleague.co.uk or follow us on Twitter @NBL_official