91Èȱ¬

Hampshire have announced that their captain, former England all-rounder Dominic Cork, will be leaving at the end of the season.

Cork, 40, who joined the county from , led Hampshire to victory in last season's .

Manager Giles White told 91Èȱ¬ Solent: "He's been a fantastic player for us and we'll miss him. We part company with a lot of fond memories.

"He's led the side well and has shown what a quality player he is."

Staffordshire-born Cork, who also captained Derbyshire between 1998 and 2003, took 131 wickets in 37 Tests for England.

He has so far scored 10,114 first-class runs at an average of 25.03, taking 989 wickets at 26.73. But he is yet to announce whether he plans to continue playing next season.

"I don't know if he'll carry on playing but he has been brilliant for us," said White.

"We'll miss him. As well as being a fine cricketer he's a great bloke.

"It was a difficult decision but we have some young players coming through and we felt we had to create the right path for that."

In his three seasons with Hampshire, the last year and half of them as captain, Cork made 987 runs in 35 first-class matches at 24.07, taking 94 wickets at 27.77.

He also took 39 wickets in 33 List 'A' matches at an economy rate of 5.23, while taking 43 Twenty20 wickets in 45 matches, going for a respectable 7.02 per over.

But Cork has only played in one of Hampshire's last six Championship matches as they beat to avoid the drop to Division Two - a fight which, despite Saturday evening's late defeat by Lancashire at Liverpool, they have taken to the final game - at home to title-chasing Warwickshire at The Rose Bowl, starting on Monday.