Glamorgan's overseas player for season 2014 and 2015, Jacques Rudolph, is looking forward to joining up with his new teammates at Glamorgan, but not before he and his current colleagues at the Titans prepare for South Africa's Ram Slam T20 Challenge semi-final today.
The Titans, formerly coached by Matt Maynard, take on the Dolphins in Cape Town for a place in the final against the Cape Cobras this weekend.
Rudolph is a highly experienced top-order batsman having played in 48 Tests and 45 One-Day Internationals for South Africa amassing over 16,000 runs and scored 46 centuries during his first-class career. He has also been a proven performer in county cricket, chiefly with Yorkshire for whom he scored 5,429 first-class runs at an average of 52.20.
In South Africa this season I started well in our one day competition but then broke my hand unfortunately and I was out for two months in total.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Yorkshire playing county cricket. I've had the privilege of playing 5 years of county cricket and understand the demands it offers.
When I played at Yorkshire, I also played in South Africa and struggled to cope with the amount of cricket, so I only signed a half-season contract this time, because of the upcoming county season with Glamorgan and to make allowance for the workload over a six-month period.
Besides having international experience, I believe my county experience and cricket knowledge could play a role with Glamorgan. I might also be able to offer a different perspective and angle on the game coming from South Africa. I enjoy working with younger players, so hopefully it will be fruitful few seasons with the Club and we can gather some strong momentum early on in the season.
Before he arrives in Wales, Rudolph has been busy making sure he is peak physical fitness and will put himself through a unique pre-season for the new county season by participating in Iron Man South Africa on 6th April, an event which attracts 2,000 competitors.
This year we celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Ironman South Africa, explained Jacques. The race itself has always been on my bucket-list and fortunately I received an entry last year. The Ironman consist of 3.8km swim in the sea, 180km cycle followed by a 42.2km run.
It is a massive personal commitment and my preparation started a few months ago. It's going really well and with two months of preparation left, I want to race this event to the best of my ability. I was inspired to take part in triathlon events by the Brownlee brothers - it's great for the mind and a fun way of staying fit and strong.
Hugh Morris, Glamorgan CEO said, I was very lucky towards the end of my career at Glamorgan to play with Viv Richards and Waqar Younis and you can't underestimate the influence those two players had on the rest of the team and the supporters.
It's really important we continue to focus on the development of our local youngsters, but for them to play alongside top class overseas players is really important and Jacques has got an outstanding record at international level and particularly at domestic level.
I know from his time at Yorkshire, they believed Jacques was one of the most professional cricketers they had ever seen and I hope he can bring that to Glamorgan and help our young players develop at a much quicker rate.
He will be miss our first Championship game of the season, but we've signed Jacques for two years not just for April, so we'll welcome him in to the squad when he joins us after the first match.
Glamorgan start the 2014 season away at the Kia Oval against Surrey in the LV= County Championship on 6th April, before the first home game of the year at the SWALEC Stadium against Gloucestershire starting on Sunday 20th April.
The county cricket fixture list offers more regularity in its scheduling in 2014, with most Championship games starting on a Sunday to allow supporters to see weekend cricket, whilst six out of seven of Glamorgan's T20 Blast home fixtures will be on a Friday night.