TOURING the gargantuan Davis Cup trophy around these islands could never be a one-man job but Leon Smith has grown accustomed to handling silverware. The first victorious captain of the Great Britain team for 79 years has made the short trip from his home near Morningside to accompany this famous old heirloom on its first stop, a thank you visit to main sponsors AEGON, and who knows his midas touch may soon also pay off for Andy Murray's beloved Hibs.

Ever since being introduced at last year's quarter final tie against France at Queen's Club, in the company of Hibs' head of football operations George Craig and then head of sports science Craig Flannigan (now of Rangers), Smith has struck up a friendship with manager Alan Stubbs. He accepted an invitation to travel on the Hibs team bus and watched the club's backroom team in action during the 4-2 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox in December, and was delighted to see the Easter Road club book their place in next month's League Cup final.

"They all came down to have lunch in London and I just got on well with Alan and kept in touch with him," said Smith. "Just before Christmas, Alan messaged me and said 'look what are you up to on the 28th?' Do you fancy getting on the team bus and being with the team that day?'

"I said absolutely, it would be great to see another sport up close," added Smith, a boyhood Celtic fan. "I was interested in how they were preparing the players, how they were doing the tactical side of things. How they did their warm up, their nutrition, their hydration.

"I talk to Alan quite a bit and that is where any exchange of ideas would go on. I will go to as many games as I can, but I go to other football matches too. With Hibs there is a connection, though, and I seem to get on with Alan which is nice. I like his style, I think he is very down to earth. It is always good to cross-fertilise ideas, there is a lot of merit in that."

When it comes to getting your hands on silverware, it doesn't get much bigger than having to compose and deliver an acceptance speech for the team of the year award in front of a TV audience of 10 million people at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards. Smith is a very polished speaker - further lucrative corporate invites surely await - but preparing for your big TV moment becomes significantly less straightforward when you have the world's second best tennis player whispering in your ear all night in a deliberate attempt to sabotage your speech.

"I was okay, because with the way the evening goes, you are watching everyone else go through that," said Smith. "But I was sitting beside Andy and he was chewing my ear off, trying to embed as many mistakes in my speech as possible. Wrong names, wrong sequences, thanking the wrong people, so that drew my whole focus in. I had five cues in my head and I just thought 'you are not infiltrating them'."

Sports psychology is big in tennis, and it isn't just world class players such as Andy Murray who use it. Smith revealed that he got some external management help four or five years ago and has recently taken a leaf out of the World No 2's book by utilising the services of a sports psychology professional. "I just do Skype calls, every couple of weeks, with someone that I have really got on well with," he said. "I can turn to him and talk about conversations I would have with players. Whether it is selections, tactics, dealing with emotions, dealing with nerves, both for myself and the team."

The Davis Cup trophy tour won't get started in earnest till later in the year but Smith is enjoying holding it so much he has no intention of letting go. To borrow from boxing parlance, Britain's first defence comes in Birmingham in early March against a Japan team featuring World No 7 Kei Nishikori and his massive media entourage. Having cleared the month of February as he awaits the birth of his first child, Andy Murray has pencilled it in as his first competitive event as a father. Jamie Murray goes in fresh from his maiden Grand Slam win in the men's doubles.

"It is a big tie and a really important one because the nature and format of the competition doesn't allow you much time to enjoy the success," said Smith, "but we are going to try to win it. It would be nice to keep momentum going into the grass court season."

As it happens, Smith met with ITF president David Haggerty whilst at the Australian Open, with one of the topics for discussion being a change to the format of the Davis Cup. While champions in future may receive a bye to the semi-finals or "final four", there is no return to the Fred Perry-era format where winners simply had to play the final, or champions round, to retain their title. "I did suggest they should do that retrospectively, but it got blown out of the water," jokes Smith.