World Cup winner James Vince will step down as Hampshire captain after a decade in charge and move to Dubai following the attacks on his family home, the English Cricket Club announced on Wednesday. Although he will miss the 2025 English Domestic First-Class County Championship or red-ball season, Vince will continue to play white-ball (limited over) cricket and captain Hampshire in the T20 Blast. The 33-year-old batsman, a member of the England squad that won the 2019 World Cup on home soil, saw his family attacked twice last year.
Vince, who said the events had left his young family fearing for their safety, told Britain’s Daily Telegraph in July that he believed the attacks were the result of mistaken identity.
“James Vince has signed a review of the final year of his contract, fulfilling his commitment to play for Hampshire Hawks in the 2025 Vitality Blast campaign and confirming that he does not plan to play red-ball cricket this year,” a Hampshire statement said. .
“After 10 consecutive years as captain of the club, Vince will also step down from the role but will remain captain of Hampshire Hawks.
“In 2024, Vince faced a challenging year on a personal level, following several attacks on his family home. As a result, the family made the decision to move to Dubai.”
Vince added that he needed to “understand what’s best for my family, and combine that with the stage I’m at in my career.”
He made his debut for Hampshire in 2009 as an 18-year-old and scored over 22,000 points for the county. Vince is the Blast’s all-time leading run-scorer and has played in Hampshire’s three title-winning T20 teams, while representing England 55 times in all formats.
Vince has also been retained by Karachi Kings for this season’s Pakistan Super T20 League on a contract worth $122,000 (about Rs 1.05 crore).
The PSL has made one move from its usual February-March period to be held between April 8 and May 19, the same time as the first half of the County Championship.
English cricket chiefs have introduced rules preventing England-contracted players or red-ball county players from appearing in overseas leagues such as the PSL held during the English season, with the exception of the Indian Premier League, T20 cricket’s richest franchise tournament.
But the policy appears to have helped persuade Vince, who won the last of his 13 caps in 2018, to abandon English first-class cricket, at least temporarily, rather than reject a lucrative PSL deal.
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