GLAMORGAN have the chance of immediate revenge over Sunday's C&G conquerors Essex when they open their County Championship campaign against them in Cardiff tomorrow.

And home skipper Robert Croft says his side have learnt from their disastrous 2005 campaign when they were relegated to Division Two and promises a more successful season.

"I believe we will be a squad of more streetwise cricketers this season, stronger for last season's experience," he said.

"We have to make sure that what happened last season does not happen again and that we get pride and passion back into our game.

"We want to make sure people regain the respect for us this season we had built up over the previous ten to 15 years."

Because of the loss of Austr-alians Mike Kasprowicz and Matthew Elliott, the illness then retirement of Matthew Maynard after the earlier retirement of Adrian Dale, and the rare availability of paceman Simon Jones, Glamorgan struggled last season.

They were forced to include too many young players at the same time instead of introducing them gradually.

Some, such as Gwent's Young England seamer Huw Waters and all-rounder Richard Grant in particular, proved their worth, others have still to do so while one or two, such as the released Jonathan Hughes, failed.

But Croft believes his players will be better for the experience and, without fear of relegation, will perform better this year.

He said: "Without that fear of going down the players will hopefully be more relaxed and be able to express themselves."

Glamorgan's preparations have been dented more than any other county, mainly by the weather, and that makes it another difficult start.

Two scheduled friendlies were rained off, only one day in their opening first class fixture against the Cardiff University Centre of Excellence was possible and rain turned Sunday's C&G game into a ten-over slog.

In addition, new signing Mark Cosgrove was called up to Australia's one-day squad in Bangladesh, meaning he is not available until the C&G game with Ireland on May 1, while New Zealand seamer James Franklin is unavailable until the middle of May because of international commitments.

But Croft believes when they are available Glamorgan will be very competitive, particularly in the one-day arena, and despite the problems is not writing off their chances against Essex.

"It's nice to get the opportunity to face them again in the space of three or four days," he said.

"Hopefully we'll get a good wicket, which is always the case really at Cardiff, and go out and play some good cricket over the four days."