White glad to see both Afridi and Maxwell

By Graham Hardcastle, in South Africa

Overseas duo Shahid Afridi and Glenn Maxwell are due to link up with the Hampshire squad in Johannesburg today ahead of their Champions League t20 campaign, which starts for them on Wednesday October 10 with a qualifying match against Auckland Aces just up the road at Centurion.

Afridi and Maxwell have been playing in the ICC World Twenty20 for Pakistan and Australia respectively, and will provide the Royals with a huge boost as they will be without Simon Katich and Neil McKenzie.Katich is playing in the competition for the Perth Scorchers, while McKenzie is playing for the Highveld Lions.

"We know Shahid and Maxi well because they've been a big part of what we've done during the last two years," said Hampshire coach Giles White, whose squad only landed in South Africa this morning before training at the Wanderers this
afternoon.

"They'll come in and know everybody, so there's no settling in to be done. We'll miss Katich and McKenzie, who have been key for us. They are very different cricketers to Shahid and Maxi, but those two should help us a lot."

Determined not to look beyond the qualifying stage of the competition, White is hoping the confidence and momentum gained during two successful domestic limited-overs campaigns in 2012 can be built upon during the next few days.

"We obviously had some success as a group," added White. "The boys played particularly well in one-day cricket, and hopefully we can put together a couple more performances in the qualifying tournament. Maybe then we'll get to go
somewhere exciting.

"It's all new to us, and we're all excited about it. It's been something nice that we've been looking forward to. The qualifying competition is going to be quite tough. If we get through, then maybe we have a chance. But to hit the ground running when you haven't played cricket for a few weeks against sides you don't know about, that's going to be
the tough bit. One loss could be curtains."

Hampshire play a warm-up match against Sri Lankans Uva Next at the Wanderers tomorrow afternoon (1pm UK time).


Date: 06/10/2012 18:04:42 by Graham Hardcastle
In: Today | Hampshire |