Alviro Petersen joins Glamorgan as captain

Alviro Petersen, the South Africa opening batsman, has signed for Glamorgan and been handed the captaincy after the club made the surprising decision to ditch Jamie Dalrymple.

A Cricket South Africa (CSA) spokesman confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that the board had agreed to allow Petersen to take up the county deal. He is unlikely to be involved in South Africa's World Cup campaign so should be available from the start of the campaign and Petersen wrote on his Twitter feed: "Yes it's true, I have signed with Glamorgan as their captain for 2011 English county season."

A report on Wales Online said that the decision to remove Dalrymple from his role was taken without Matthew Maynard, the director of cricket, and that both may now consider their position at Glamorgan. Dalrymple, who joined from Middlesex, has one year to run on his current contract.

Glamorgan performed above expectation in last year's County Championship, narrowly missing out on promotion to Division One, but were disappointing in the one-day game which was a club priority and failed to make the knockout stages of either the Friends Provident t20 or Clydesdale Bank 40.