I wandered into the Rose Bowl the other day, arriving, as usual, a little later than scheduled. It was a poignant moment for me as I didn't know when I would next return to the ground that I called my home for the last four years or to the Club that has been my employer for the past eleven.

There I was, standing by the steps to the home team dressing room with my wife and baby daughter, looking over a magnificent scene. The ground was packed with 17,000 spectators attending England's ICC Champions Trophy match against Sri Lanka. I could not help but be struck by the contrast of this invigorating spectacle to that which had greeted me on my first visit to Hampshire CCC at Northlands Road in 1992.

In fact, I could only find two similarities between the occasions. One was that Tim Tremlett, then 2nd XI coach and now Director of cricket and Coaching, was the first familiar face I saw, and the other was that it was pelting down with rain. On that initial occasion, I was due to play a match for the now extinct Club and Ground side, but arrived at an empty and sodden pitch where we didn't bowl a ball. Last Friday, I was due to watch an hour or so but didn't see any action whatsoever. A neat bit of symmetry I thought.

The period of my association with Hampshire has seen massive transition, both for the Club and for English cricket in general.

Take domestic cricket for example and how it has dramatically altered over the past few years. Two divisional four-day cricket is now the staple diet of the County Championship; one-day cricket is almost entirely of the pyjama variety as my Dad calls it; Twenty20 has exploded onto the scene; and you can barely find an fully fledged Englishman at some places for the merry-go-round of overseas players and the influx of EU and Kolpak qualified cricketers that are clogging the system. A good England team and the success of Twenty20 are bringing the crowds back in and have given the game a fashionable edge, but as ever, the county game has plenty of work to do to convince onlookers of its quality and worth. That problem never seems to go away.

For this county, the past decade has probably realised the biggest change of any period in its esteemed history - from Hampshire County Cricket Club at Northlands Road, a traditional committee run set-up based at a cosy ground among the houses and flats of central Southampton to Hampshire Cricket at the Rose Bowl, an ambitious and forward thinking business run by a public limited company in a state of the art stadium on the edge of the city.

I often look back wistfully at the Northlands Road times and remember the intimate atmosphere, the quirky changing rooms and the shirt front pitches. The Club had immense character and one could sense the history - it couldn't have been too different when Phil Mead was scoring runs prodigiously or when Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie was leading the 1961 County Champions. It was a great place to play cricket and importantly for me, a batting paradise.

The plans for the new ground were being mooted about soon after I joined the playing staff on a summer contract. I clearly recall Mark Nicholas and Bill Hughes talking the players through the proposals, and I remember thinking that this was the place to be - there were exciting times ahead.

Despite the odd drama and minor crisis along the way, those plans have come to fruition and have presented us with the spectacular arena that is the Rose Bowl. The stirring thing about the place is that it lets your imagination run wild. Whereas at the old place you could feel the past, here you can sense the future. What is there at the moment is just the start; the future permutations are almost endless. It is a fabulous place to be involved, made better by the knowledge that the Club has ambition for the development of the ground and facilities, and to be a regular fixture on the international cricket circuit. To co-host the ICC Champions Trophy is a huge achievement and those who were lucky enough to see Freddie Flintoff's brilliant century to set up England's win last week will testify that all the effort has been worthwhile. In county cricket terms, Hampshire's progress on this front is extraordinary and unique.

Unfortunately, the fate of the playing side is the one thing that has not changed very much. We have had our moments over the past decade but I guess that it will be remembered as a time of relative transition from the heady days of triumphant Lord's finals of the early 1990s through to the Shane Warne inspired trophy contenders of the coming seasons. Certainly, this term has been a triumph and has been topped off with a comfortable victory at Derby over last weekend, where Shaun Udal stepped into his fellow spinner's shoes to captain and bowl his side to victory. It bodes well for the future.

I am not the only one leaving this autumn - James Hamblin has also opted to move onto different things after a frustrating year or two. Hambo has been a fine if rather unlucky cricketer but has plenty of other options in his life and we wish him well. County cricket tends to be a bit of a revolving door. Many faces come and go - that is the nature of the beast - but whatever the changes and transitions, the institutions of Hampshire and the game itself remain.

It's time to move on!

Before I sign off, I must just thank one other institution, Ian Henderson and the staff on the sports desk at the Hampshire Chronicle for the opportunity and for all their assistance and encouragement over the past seven years of this column. Their support has been hugely appreciated. And thank you too to everyone who has taken the time to read my rants and ramblings - I hope they have been informative and occasionally entertaining. I've enjoyed every bit of it.

Through the transition and change at Hampshire over the past few years, I hope that I have played a part. Now is the right time for me to move on as I know that Hampshire will move on. I wish everyone there all the very best for the future. There are exciting times ahead for all of us.