Glamorgan need to strengthen squad, says chief Hugh Morris

Glamorgan finished fourth in Division Two of the County Championship

Glamorgan chief Hugh Morris says the club must increase the size of the squad for next season, after cutbacks partly for financial reasons in 2015.

Morris hopes to announce the recruitment of a top-order batsman "in the not too distant future."

Captain Jacques Rudolph and coach Toby Radford both pointed to the small numbers in the senior squad as a reason for their decline in the Championship.

"It stretched us in the second half of the season," Morris said.

"Quite understandably a number of players didn't have a lot of petrol in the tank at the end of the summer."

More competition for places

Glamorgan won four and drew four in the first half of their four-day campaign, but lost four and drew four in the second half.

"We want to create competition within the squad, we've got some good young players coming through, though some of them are very young," said Morris in his end-of-season review for BBC Wales Sport.

Hugh Morris (right) with the Prince of Wales at the SSE Swalec Stadium in July

"We want to try and strengthen our seam bowling department, we are actively speaking to people, and we need to create more competition at the top of our batting order.

"we hope to make an announcement in the not-too-distant future."

Fast-bowling all-rounder Craig Meschede is now back on Somerset's books after a year on loan at the SSE Swalec Stadium.

Glamorgan went up from eighth to fourth in the Championship, but missed out on the knockout stages of both T20 and One-Day Cup cricket, the latter campaign being wrecked by a second points deduction for pitch problems.

Morris summed up; "We've made encouraging strides forward. We're not the finished article by a long way. As far as white-ball cricket is concerned I thought we were a bit unlucky, I thought we played really well away from home in Twenty20 cricket but not so well at home."

Better batting pitches wanted

Captain Jacques Rudolph has spoken of the need to improve the Cardiff pitch for batting, with head groundsman Keith Exton leaving the county after the abandonment of the Hampshire game.

"It's important to try to get the right balance between bat and ball and that's what we always try to produce" was Morris's response.

"It's a good opportunity for Robin Saxton who's been announced as our head groundsman for the next 12 months, he's a very enthusiastic and committed man and he'll be working with the groundstaff to produce the best pitches we can."

England in Wales

Morris says the county is "really pleased" with the staging of England's Test and T20 matches against Australia in 2015.

Glamorgan's SSE Swalec Stadium hosted the first Ashes Test between England and Australia in July

The men's and women's double-header was sold out, where only 70% sales had been budgeted for.

Cardiff will not host an Ashes Test during the next Australian tour in 2019, while the allocation of games from 2020 onwards has been put on hold.

But with games in the 2017 Champions Trophy and the 2019 World Cup heading to Wales, Morris believes there will be enough high-profile games to boost the county's coffers.

"We've got two global events which we're hosting in Cardiff, which will create a huge international audience which will be great for the club, for Cardiff and for Wales," the former England batsman said.