Exclusive: Hampshire aid Australia in bid for Ashes rule

County will provide finishing school for rivals' next generation at summer academ

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Starting next season, Australia's brightest young Under-19 talent will spend the summer with Hampshire while also playing for clubs in the Southern Electric Premier League.

In an exclusive interview with Independent Sport, the Hampshire chairman, Rod Bransgrove, said the new agreement would mean the county helping to develop Australia's next generation of talent and revealed that talks were under way with other countries, including India and Sri Lanka, to put similar arrangements in place.

The move will effectively establish Hampshire as a global academy during the summer months, when most countries are in their off-season.

Although the players will not turn out for Hampshire's Academy or Second XI, the county will take on responsibility for areas such as strength, conditioning and skill development while also monitoring players' performances for clubs in the county's top league.

"For many years we've all got quite used to sending our players off to Australia, South Africa and India," Bransgrove said, "so it makes sense to speak to national governing bodies about bringing their best young players to England and for us to assist in their development.

"The qualification is that these players must have at least played for Australia at Under-19 level," he added. "We would use roughly the same parameter for Sri Lankans or Indians, or other countries we're talking to at the moment.

"Whilst they're high-performance or high-potential players they may be a step or two away from being a first-choice overseas county player. From a Cricket Australia point of view they're looking to send cricketers that can then move relatively seamlessly into their Australia A side."

At a time when England have finally got the upper hand against their oldest rivals, there will doubtless be some who view the move as a way of handing the advantage back to Australia. But Bransgrove believes the county is merely fulfilling the role that countless club sides Down Under have carried out in the past.

"I remember stories from people like Robin Smith and Alec Stewart about how they completed their development playing club cricket in Western Australia," he said. "We've sent our young players out to the [Darren] Lehmann Academy and Paul Terry Academy in Australia in the past
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