Glamorgan County Cricket Club today confirmed that its First XI Coach, Jeff Hammond, will not be returning to the county in 2002. Hammond, who was appointed to succeed Duncan Fletcher last season, has announced his intention to retire from coaching and will be returning to his native Australia to pursue business interests.

Jeff Hammond said: "I've had two fabulous years with Glamorgan and have thoroughly enjoyed my time here in Wales but after a lot of soul-searching and discussions with my family I've decided that it's the right time for me to be leaving cricket. I intend to return to Australia, where I have some business interests. I have a lot of happy memories of my two years in Wales and have a lot of time and respect for the people I've worked with.

I would like to say how much I've enjoyed working with the Glamorgan players and I wish Steve James and the team every good wish for the future. We've enjoyed a little bit of success in the two years I've been here and although we've been a bit disappointing in the Championship this year it's good to see us finishing the season on a high with the achievement of the Second Division Championship in the Norwich Union League. I still have a lot of faith in the players at the Club at the moment and I'm sure they'll go from strength to strength as a team.

I would also like to thank everyone else at Glamorgan for their kindness and co-operation, notably the administration staff, cricket committee and the many supporters with whom my wife Pauline and I have made friends. I haven't taken the decision to retire from coaching lightly but just feel the time is right to move on. I wish the Club the best of luck in years to come and I will be following their results and performances from afar with a lot of interest."

Chief Executive Mike Fatkin said: "We respect Jeff's decision and as well as thanking him for his contribution over the past couple of years would in turn want to wish both him and Pauline the best of success for the future. I know Jeff is pleased that the team has achieved promotion in the Norwich Union League and he also has a Lord's Final in 2000 to look back on from his time with us. We're very grateful to him for the contribution he's made during his two seasons with Glamorgan.

In terms of how we deal with the appointment of a successor we have a few options that we're pursuing and have had some preliminary internal discussions about those. We're also understandably keen to continue liaising with the Captain, Steve James, on the subject as the Captain/Coach relationship is so important to every Club. As far as the timing of an appointment is concerned, we have two excellent coaches on hand already in John Derrick and Steve Watkin, the latter recently appointed as our Academy Director, so there is no immediate urgency, but although we recognize the importance of making an appointment well before the start of the 2002 season we naturally want to make sure we've looked at every option to ensure we have the right person to take over from Jeff. An announcement will be made in due course."

© Glamorgan CCC/CricInfo