Andy Murray will be absent from Smith's side for a second successive match when they go into this weekend's Europe/Africa Zone Group I clash with Belgium.

The world number four pulled out when he decided he could not afford to miss a week of training on clay to play on an indoor hard court in Glasgow, and has instead stayed in Miami with coach Ivan Lendl.

A back injury to Britain's number two James Ward means that Josh Goodall, ranked 253rd in the world, heads the British challenge at Braehead Arena against a team boasting two players in the top 100.

With other top players missing matches this weekend - both Spain's Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic of Serbia are absent from their respective quarter-finals - many feel that the format of the competition needs to be changed.

There have been calls for it to be made biennial or condensed into a two-week period rather than ties being played throughout the year on a home-and-away basis. But Smith does not want to lose the special atmosphere the competition can create.

Thriller

"If you can get the best players playing all of the time, of course it's going to help because it's going to be good for the fans and for tennis globally," he said.

"But it's a unique competition having the home and away element, and that's something the players love and thrive on because they don't get that anywhere else.

"The competition has got a lot of great benefits, but whatever happens in future to try to help get the best players playing is going to be good for the competition."

Goodall will open Friday's clash against world number 68 Steve Darcis before Dan Evans, the hero of February's victory over Slovakia, takes on Belgian number one Olivier Rochus.

Goodall has only played in one tie before, when he failed to win a set against Ukraine at the same venue three years ago,

Smith however, is confident the fast court will suit him and also hopes that Evans can find the same form he showed against Slovakia.

In that match he beat two players ranked significantly higher than him, including winning a five-set thriller in the deciding rubber against Martin Klizan.

Euphoria

"Winning always helps and the manner it was done, with so much drama, excitement and euphoria at the end, I think that's carried on," said Smith

"It's going to take a lot of hard work to get the same result this weekend but we showed last time anything's possible. Speaking to the players, they're really confident they can do something.

"They know they're going to have to play well, and maybe the Belgians have to be slightly off their game, that's the way it happens when there's such a big ranking deficit, but it can be done, and we've prepared well."

Rochus, ranked 59, is hugely experienced and can boast career wins over the likes of Novak Djokovic, Marat Safin and Richard Gasquet, but he expects the British team to provide a stiff test for Belgium.

On Murray's absence, the 31-year-old said: "The good players do this many times, they just play when they want to, which I think is not very nice for the country but it's just the way it is.

"Of course for us it's better because when you have a player like Murray who is top four in the world, we know he can win both his singles so it's very tricky.

"On paper we're favourites with the rankings but Britain have very good players, especially Evans, who has been playing very well in Davis Cup and winning a lot of good matches recently. They have a very good doubles pair, too, so it's a very tricky tie."

The one rubber Britain will be favourites to win comes on Saturday, when doubles pair Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins take on Ruben Bemelmans and David Goffin, with the reverse singles taking place on Sunday.