Hamer to step down at Glamorgan

Glamorgan will lose a second major figure at the end of the season after their chief executive, Alan Hamer, announced he is to step down after seven years at the club.

The news comes in the same week that head of elite performance, Matthew Mott, also said he was leaving Cardiff at the end of the current campaign, leaving the county with two major holes to fill in the close season.

Hamer has been chief executive at Glamorgan since 2009 and guided the club into a new era since they became a Test match ground in his first season in charge, staging a memorable Ashes Test. Since then, Glamorgan have developed a strong commercial base and recently achieved better-than-expected results from staging matches during the Champions Trophy.

But on the field Glamorgan have struggled to settle. An almighty furore was created in the winter of 2010 when coach Matthew Maynard and captain Jamie Dalrymple were both sacked. Mott was brought in under a new regime which was again shuffled around the following winter.

Now another new management team will have to be assembled but Hamer will remain at the club until his successor is found.

"Alan has indicated to me for a while that he wishes to pursue a number of other opportunities," the Glamorgan chairman, Barry O'Brien, said. "As our previous finance and commercial director and chief executive since 2009, Alan has made a major contribution to the club including managing the successful 2009 Ashes and this year's Champions Trophy which helped put Glamorgan cricket and the SWALEC Stadium on the world cricket map.

"I am very grateful to Alan and respect his decision to seek a new challenge. I am also pleased that Alan has accepted the committee's invitation to become an honorary life member in recognition of his contribution to the club."

Hamer added: "This has been a difficult decision following seven happy years at the club. I am, however, convinced that this is the right time for me to build on my successes at the club and to take on a new challenge."