Around this time, Croft was involved in what ESPNCricinfo calls "an unsavoury, but in truth pretty harmless, pushing and finger-wagging incident" with Mark Ilott during the NatWest Trophy semi-final against Essex,[1] which Glamorgan narrowly lost.

Wisden observed that "England found an unlikely hero in Croft, who made up for three wicketless Tests by keeping his end intact for more than three hours".

[5] Croft was dropped for the next Test, although his innings helped to shift the momentum in the series, which England won.

He enjoyed another relatively successful tour in Sri Lanka early in 2001, taking nine wickets at 28.66 as England won the three-match Test series.

On 12 September 2006, after just two County Championship victories in 15 games thus far in the season, he announced his resignation from the captaincy, and was succeeded by David Hemp.

[12] He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to cricket.