Glamorgan have taken the surprise step in appointing Alviro Petersen as their new captain for 2011.
Petersen, a South African international opening batsmen, will lead Glamorgan in all three forms of the game next season in a bid to improve the county’s fortunes in one-day cricket.
Jamie Dalrymple had led the Welsh county for the past two seasons and took the club to the brink of promotion back to Division One of the LV= County Championship, only missing out on the last day of the season.
Glamorgan Chief Executive Alan Hamer made no secret of his desire for Glamorgan to focus on one-day competitions last season for commercial reasons but they performed poorly, even finishing below the ECB Unicorns in their Clydesdale Bank 40 League group.
“We are an ambitious club and share our supporters’ desire to bring success back to the club,” Hamer told www.glamorgancricket.com, “Glamorgan’s record in one-day cricket over the past few years has been very poor and the appointment of Petersen as our captain forms a crucial part of the club’s strategy to improve our playing fortunes over the coming seasons.
“As well as being a high quality international player, he is also an outstanding leader and we look forward to working with him as we strive for improvements in our performances,” said Hamer.
The desire for one-day improvement is a strange motivation for the recruitment of Petersen. He has only a modest record in domestic one-day cricket – 3,402 runs at an average of 32 – and ironically, his best career achievement was in the longest form of the game when he became only the third South African to score a century on Test debut with 100 against India in Calcutta last February.
Glamorgan have had burly Australian batsmen Mark Cosgrove as their overseas player for the past two seasons. In 2010 Cosgrove enjoyed a fruitful summer, scoring 1,187 first-class runs at an average of 49; 397 one-day runs also at 49 and 562 Twenty20 runs at 35.
Despite Director of Cricket Matthew Maynard declaring his desire to bring Cosgrove back to Glamorgan for 2011, the Australian has only been offered a deal as a second overseas player for the Friends Provident T20 competition for 2011. Glamorgan await Cosgrove’s response.
