James Hayward has stepped down as South Wilts captain just months after leading the Bemerton club to a historic ECB Southern Electric Premier League and Southern Electric twenty20 Cup double.

The 27- year old, who lit up the Ageas Bowl with a six-strewn 130 in the Electric t20 Cup final against Burridge, said that he “felt it was time for a change”.

He said: “I’ve captained the club for six years now and had actually planned on stepping down at the end of 2012, but didn’t want people to think it was because we’d won the title so I thought I would give it another season. As it happened we won the double.”

Hayward’s decision to step down and, in his words, “concentrate on his own game”, may come as a surprise with South Wilts on the brink of a unique hat-trick of Premier Division championships “It would have been nice to do the hat-trick of titles but there is still a long way to go. “For me then the target is still very much to win the Premiership three seasons in a row but it’s not important that I’m captain for that. I will still be involved, I’m sure,” he explained. “I’m hoping that with the added pressure of captain now being taken away then I will have a little more time to work on my own game and can hopefully offer the team more, whether that’s with the bat, ball or in the field.

“South Wilts is a great club to be at just now and I’m looking forward to seeing the club continue to progress.”

Hayward, pictured, who scored over 600 Premier League runs this summer, including three centuries, flies to Australia today to spend a month supporting England’s beleaguered bid to retain the Ashes. South Wilts plan to announce their 2014 captain shortly.