Jacques Rudolph: South African felt 'burden' of Glamorgan captaincy

Jacques Rudolph played 48 Tests for South Africa, plus 45 one-day internationals and one T20 international

Glamorgan captain Jacques Rudolph says form and family considerations are behind his decision to retire from cricket at the end of the season.

The ex-South Africa batsman, 36, has relinquished the four-day captaincy but will still lead the team in Twenty20.

"I'm potentially not [enjoying it] 100% as much but I think now there's a little bit of a burden off my shoulders with captaincy," Rudolph said.

"I really want to focus these last 10 games on my batting."

The Welsh county finished second bottom of Division Two of the County Championship last year and have failed to win any of their four-day games so far this season.

Rudolph, who was appointed as skipper in 2015, admits he'll be leaving Wales frustrated that Glamorgan have not enjoyed much on-field success.

"It's been a little bit disappointing for me in red ball cricket that I haven't been able to hit the form and the standards that I aspire to," he added.

"If I just look back at last year, at the start of the season I was, honestly, very adamant we had a very strong group of players and we could really push for promotion.

Jacques Rudolph played for Yorkshire and Surrey before joining Glamorgan in 2014,

"I think that's the one sad thing for me is where we've finished last year in the four-day competition.

"I had high hopes of getting into the first division; any second division team should aspire to do so.

"I'd say that's the one thing I'm a little bit sad about that we didn't perform as well as we should have."

Rudolph made 48 Test appearances, played 45 one-day internationals and made one T20 international appearance for South Africa.

He cites his unbeaten score of 222 on his Test debut against Bangladesh in 2003 as the best innings of his career.

Now Rudolph admits the time is right to let cricket take a back seat in his life, but says the decision was not an easy one to make.

'The sum of small things'

"I think it's a case of the sum of small things," he said. "It's not like there was one specific thing that stood out that made me make this decision.

"I just felt that the time was right but I honestly thought that it was going to be announced later.

"It was a little bit emotional because it's been a big part of my life.

"I've been fortunate that I had a 20-year career, saw the world, met some lovely people and I think it's sad to leave the game but there are definitely some new ventures that I can be excited about.

"Over the last year or so I've been thinking about it.

"I've got a young family, and before we came out here I had my son in school and we come over here for cricket season and then he's out of school again.

"So I think there's a little bit of fatherhood that came through for me in terms of trying to settle down and settle my family a little bit."

Australian bowler Michael Hogan will captain Glamorgan's four-day side and he will first lead the team on Friday when they face Durham in the County Championship at St Helen's, Swansea.