Middlesex captain Ben Hutton has resigned from his post following a woeful campaign in which the club were relegated in both forms of the game. Hutton took over the captaincy from Andrew Strauss for 2005 but missed much of this season because of shingles.
His team managed only one victory in the Championship and two in Pro40.
"It's important we perform to the standards we are capable of and I look forward to contributing to that without the weight of the captaincy," he said.
Hutton, who made his Middlesex debut in 1999, was unable to recapture the kind of form that saw him compile 1,124 first-class runs in the 2004 season.
In 18 Championship innings during the 2006 campaign the 29-year-old totalled 459 runs, averaging 27 with a top score of 105 and only one fifty.
"Due to a combination of illness and loss of form it has been a difficult year both on and off the field and I believe that it is in mine and the best interest of the club to step down," he said.
Former skipper Ed Joyce is a candidate to replace Hutton at the helm, as is Jamie Dalrymple, but both are likely to be involved in the England one-day squad.
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