Middlesex coach Toby Radford is looking to use the Champions League Twenty20 in December to rebuild his team.

A place in the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League and an all-expenses paid trip - albeit an unsuccessful one - to Antigua for the Stanford Super Series would suggest Toby Radford's Middlesex is a happy place to be.

But in reality, the 36-year-old first-team coach has been holding together a team in a state of almost ceaseless flux, on and off the pitch.

The winter trips to the Caribbean and, now, India may have papered over some of the cracks, but Radford's next big task - much more important than capturing new silverware and dollar bills - is to install the building blocks of a new era at Lord's.

The initial bout of turbulence saw former Pakistan coach Richard Pybus leave the county after only five months at the helm in July 2007 and handed Radford a chance to step up from his role as academy boss on a temporary basis.

For a man still in the tentative steps of a coaching career, and at an age when most of his contemporaries were still eking out a legacy in the middle, it was a massive opportunity.

And with the recent increased visibility of the club's brand, especially in the Twenty20 format, it is one he is on the verge of making the very best of.

But it has not been an easy ride.

Last year there was unrest from players, officials and members - not helped by what was essentially a lame-duck captaincy by Ed Smith, who was prevented from playing any significant part in the Twenty20 triumph due to injury.

That led to Ed Joyce taking over as skipper, to be followed by Shaun Udal, and gave the impression of a team lacking in clear direction.

Finishing bottom in the Pro40 with the same side which was pulling up trees in the shorter format, and the continued presence of Division Two cricket in the championship, gave further rise to such suspicions.

But in all the discussions and recriminations, almost every senior position at Lord's - both on and off the pitch - came under question. Radford's role, though, went relatively unquestioned and he was given the freedom to prepare his side for the trials ahead.

His decisions thus far have shown a man unafraid to make bold statements.

The selection of Udal as captain may look like the classic 'safe pair of hands' promotion, but in handing the role of on-field lieutenant to a man who announced his first-class retirement just a year ago before a hasty change of heart, he has followed instinct more than conventional wisdom.

The club have also ruffled some feathers with the controversial loan signing of Warwickshire all-rounder Neil Carter for their winter escapades.

In bringing in the big-hitting all-rounder on a short-term deal, Radford's Middlesex have risked the wrath of the establishment by conjuring the very image of the nomadic cricketing mercenary that almost everybody else is going to extreme lengths to disavow.

Carter could not inspire his new, and temporary, team-mates to victory in Antigua but his recruitment serves notice of Radford's interest in breaking with tradition in what are exciting and untested times for the sport.

If the strife around him settles in 2009 - and a strong showing in the Champions League would help to set those wheels in motion - his youthful, open-minded approach to coaching could stand Middlesex in good stead.