LONG-serving Herefordshire Minor Counties cricket captain Chris Boroughs has been replaced as skipper – and quit the club.

All-rounder Boroughs had been the county side’s captain for 11 years.

Boroughs’ Brockhampton team-mate David Exall has been installed to lead Herefordshire next season.

The move was announced last Friday afternoon.

Club spokesman Peter Sykes said the change was due to the club “looking to the future.”

“We wanted to change the captaincy with Chris staying on and David getting the benefits of his experience,”

said Sykes.

“That was the plan, but it isn’t going to happen, which is unfortunate.

“We haven’t had a vicecaptain designate for the past number of years and Chris is getting a bit older now,” said Sykes.

“None of us are getting younger and we all have to take a step aside at some time - it’s a young man’s world.

“We hoped that Chris would still be here for the next couple of years to help David, but he has decided to leave us.”

Sykes said that Exall was the ideal candidate to replace Boroughs.

“We have got a group of young lads and David is the most experienced of them - he has been here about five to six years and can identify with the players.”

Sykes said he was disappointed that Boroughs had decided to leave the club.

“Chris has done wonders here and I cannot fault him,” he said.

“It is nothing to do with his performance as a captain or as a player and he has done the job that we have asked of him.

“I hoped that he would have stayed. He did a very good job over the years and I cannot say a bad word against him.”

Sykes added that Exall will choose his own vicecaptain.