Adam Hollioake, 32, one of Surrey's most successful post-war captains, is to retire from the first-class game at the end of next season. He will retain the captaincy for the 2004 season, his benefit year.

Latterly, Hollioake has admitted he is not enjoying cricket as he used to, a state of mind perhaps engendered by the death of his younger brother, Ben, last year and Surrey's unsatisfactory Championship defence this year.

The Surrey captain sets out tomorrow on a 2000-mile journey by foot, bike and boat from Edinburgh to Tangiers, via France and Spain, in order to raise money for the Ben Hollioake Memorial Fund, which, over the next five years it is hoped will provide £5m for the children's hospice charity, Chase. At the end of that, Hollioake has to organise his benefit year, before focusing once more on the Surrey leadership, his fitness and next season's Championship campaign.

His legacy as captain will be impressive. Surrey have won the County Championship three times, in 1999, 2000 and 2002; they won the Benson & Hedges Cup in 1997, his first full year as captain, and, after winning the National League Second Division title in 2000, they took the competition's First Division crown this season.

Hollioake did two seasons as a stand-in captain for Alec Stewart in 1995 and 1996 - on the first occasion he helped pull Surrey from bottom of the table into a more respectable 12th place by the end of that season, and the following year he helped ensure a third place finish - and was appointed to the job full-time by the then coach, David Gilbert.

He led England to victory in the quadrangular one-day tournament in Sharjah in 1997 against West Indies, India and Pakistan and has appeared in 35 one-day internationals for England as well as playing in four Tests - two each against Australia and West Indies.

Hollioake was born in Melbourne but educated from the age of 12 at St George's College, Weybridge. He made his first-class debut against Derbyshire in 1993 and, in the second innings, scored 123 - the first of his 17 first-class hundreds to date.