Title-chasing Hampshire honour team legend Shane Warne ahead of new cricket season
WATCH: ITV Meridian speaks to Hampshire skipper James Vince, newly-signed wicket-keeper Ben Brown and first team manager Adi Birrell about Shane Warne's legacy at Hampshire, and their hopes for the season.
Hampshire are hoping to go one better this year after forfeiting last season's title ambitions by the narrowest of margins.
A one wicket defeat against Lancashire in their final game of the season put paid to their hopes of lifting the trophy for the first time since 1973.
But the experience has made them hungrier than ever for success according to skipper James Vince.
"We want to go one better last year." he says. "I think it's given us appetite to to make sure we do everything we can to go on and win it this year."
Speaking at today's press launch ahead of the new season, he said the club wanted to honour the legacy of the late great Shane Warne.
"It changed the way Hampshire played their cricket when he was involved.
"He took it from a club that was sort of just turning up and hoping for the best to really try and breed a winning mentality into the squad.
"That's something that's still with the club now and something we want to take forward."
The season will get underway when they host Somerset at The Ageas Bowl in the opening round of the LV= Insurance County Championship, starting on Thursday.
"Yeah, we've had some good games in Somerset in the past" says Vince.
"I think they beat us here last year, the year before. We beat them here and denied them winning the championship for a couple of years before that.
"So yeah, nice feisty one to get going. But you know, this year there will be no easy games, particularly with the format being back to two divisions.
"So a tough start, but we're at home and if we play the cricket that we're capable of, I'm sure we'd come out on top."
Manager Adi Birrell is equally ambitious; "There's only one winner and you remember that winner," he says. "And last season we really hoping that it would be us.
"It wasn't to be but we know how close we came.
"But, you know, there's a lot of work. We're not focusing on the end yet. We've got to start at the beginning."
Sussex's loss is Hampshire's gain in the form of wicket-keeper/batsman Ben Brown who signed in January.
"People like Shane Warne make coming to a club like Hampshire such a humbling experience," he says. "You see the greats of the game, you know, plastered all over the walls here with the success he had.
"And the character he had has people still talking about the stories and the legacy that Shane Warne left here, the mindset he played his cricket with.
"So it's hugely sad and when I turned up, I was humbled to come and play for a cricket club, that had Shane Warne as a captain, one of the best sides in the country.