Glamorgan will be aiming to build on the successes of last season when they gained promotion to Division One of the County Championship and reached the final of the Benson & Hedges Cup – their first one-day final in 23 years.

But whatever they achieve will have to be without Australian opening batsman Matthew Elliott who was appointed captain of Victoria and decided not to return to Glamorgan.

The Welshmen set their sights Down Under again and opted for Queenslander Jimmy Maher as their overseas player. He has featured in two One-Day Internationals for Australia and scores prolifically at domestic level.

Glamorgan will be under fresh captaincy this year with Steve James taking on the mantle after Matthew Maynard resigned from the job last season to concentrate on his batting. It will be a busy season for opening bat James who has also been awarded a benefit year by Glamorgan.

However, it now seems likely that he will miss the county's opening championship game at Northampton after two minor knee operations. Last week he had been quite upbeat about his chances of playing against Northamptonshire, but club surgeon John Fairclough has said he needs to strengthen his left leg following surgery.

In the absence of James, the captaincy will fall on the shoulders of vice-captain Adrian Dale.

Glamorgan have a strong batting line-up with Maynard, Michael Powell and Dale in the middle order, as well as Robert Croft and wicket-keeper Adrian Shaw capable of big scores later in the order.

But it will be interesting to see how many times Croft will be available for his county this summer. Though left off the list of centrally contracted England players, he got better and better during the national side's winter tours and could still play a crucial part in international games this year, particularly if Ashley Giles' injury worries fail to clear up.

Squad: D Cherry, D Cosker, R Croft, A Dale, AJ Davies, AP Davies, A Evans, D Harrison, J Hughes, S James (captain), S Jones, J Maher, M Maynard, K Newell, O Parkin, M Powell, A Shaw, I Thomas, S Thomas, M Wallace, S Watkin, A Wharf.

Overseas: J P Maher (Australia)

In: J P Maher.

Out: M Elliott, W Law.

© CricInfo Ltd.