Robert Croft took over as Head Coach in 2016 but the most experienced international cricketer ever-produced by Glamorgan did not have a magic wand to waive as it proved to be another season of collective disappointments. In the Championship they suffered eight defeats and were hampered by injuries to a number of key players, especially Colin Ingram who struggled with knee problems, whilst Chris Cooke suffered from back problems which required surgery. Their form in the One-Day Cup was also patchy, with three wins in the opening rounds of games being followed by four successive losses.
Glamorgan’s most promising form came in the Twenty20 Cup with their campaign starting in spectacular style against Surrey at The Kia Oval where Glamorgan dismissed Surrey for a paltry 93 with Timm van der Gugten taking 4/14. With Dale Steyn also in their ranks, the evergreen fast bowler played a key hand in the victory over Hampshire with the Springbok sharing fast bowler sharing seven wickets with Hogan before Aneurin Donald posted an uninhibited fifty from just 24 balls to lead his side to a five-wicket victory. Another win followed against Gloucestershire before David Lloyd blitzed an astonishing 97 from 49 balls against the Kent Spitfires with Steyn also claiming four wickets as Glamorgan eased to victory.
The victory over Surrey saw Dean Cosker become the first Glamorgan bowler to claim a hundred wickets in Twenty20 cricket before the contest with Sussex saw Lloyd strike a boisterous 81 from 55 balls, before the visitors stuttered against van der Gugten and Hogan as they slipped to defeat. An emphatic victory followed against a lacklustre Middlesex team at Richmond before Glamorgan clinched a home quarter-final spot as they beat Somerset at Taunton. However, the match against the Yorkshire Vikings saw them humbled by the visitors after David Willey had clubbed a muscular 79 from 38 balls in front of a crowd of 10, 087.
In the subsequent Championship matches there were some outstanding performances by three homegrown Glamorgan players. The first came at Worcester where Glamorgan chased a target of 277 with Owen Morgan, the young all-rounder from Pontarddulais, scoring a century to see the side home, having arrived at the crease as the night-watchman. The contest game against Derbyshire at Colwyn Bay then witnessed a remarkable innings by Aneurin Donald who, during the course of two boundary-laden sessions, equalled the world-record for the fastest-ever double-hundred in first-class cricket. After riding his luck and surviving a number of early chances before making fifty, he moved on in faultless style to complete 200 from 123 deliveries with 26 fours and 15 sixes one of which cannoned into a bus passing the Rhos-on-Sea Ground en route to Llandudno.
Glamorgan’s Championship match at Northampton in late August duly saw Kiran Carlson, fresh from completing his A-levels at Whitchurch High School take a ‘five-for’ with his off-spin, before a fortnight later, at 18 years and 119 days, he became Glamorgan’s youngest-ever centurion – and the youngest player in the history of the County Championship to have a hundred and a ‘five for’ to their name – as he struck a superb century against Essex at Chelmsford. It came after play had been delayed by traffic chaos following a fatal accident on the M25 and A12. Despite these events, Kiran reached this landmark, nonchalantly clipping Ravi Bopara to short mid-wicket to complete his hundred, with his flick being greeted by a leonine roar of approval from his delighted colleagues on the dressing-room balcony.