Hampshire County Cricket Club
state team |
team_name = Hampshire |
colour = red |
established =
1864 |
first first-class match = |
current captain =
Shane Warne|
current coach = |
image = Logo of Hampshire County Cricket Club.gif|
image_caption = Hampshire CCC crest| county titles = 2|}}
Hampshire County Cricket Club (
HCCC) is a
first-class cricket club based in the south of
England. When playing in the English one-day league they play under the name
Hampshire Hawks. Their home ground is the
Rose Bowl, which is located at West End, near
Southampton. They moved to the newly-built Rose Bowl in
2001 after they left the County Ground, in Northlands Road Southampton, which had been their home since
1885. The team had also played occasional matches in
Portsmouth,
Basingstoke and
Bournemouth before moving all competitive matches to the Rose Bowl.
Hampshire first played first-class cricket in
1864, and first competed in the
County Championship in
1895, the sixth year in which the Championship was held. They were winners in
1961 and
1973. They also won the NatWest Trophy (now the
C&G Trophy in
1991, the now-defunct Benson&Hedges Cup in
1988 and
1992, and the Sunday League in
1975,
1978 and
1986. On
3 September 2005 Hampshire won the
C&G Trophy by 18 runs, including a century from Zimbabwean
Sean Ervine, against
Warwickshire.
Their current captain is legendary
Australian Test bowler,
Shane Warne, and vice-captain is England spinner
Shaun Udal.
Famous players include
England cricket captains CB Fry,
David Gower and
Lionel Hallam Tennyson, 3rd Baron Tennyson;
West Indian greats
Gordon Greenidge Andy Roberts and
Malcolm Marshall;
Barry Richards of
South Africa; commentator and broadcaster
Mark Nicholas; England Test caps
John Crawley ;
Robin Smith;
Kevin Pietersen; and Australians
Simon Katich,
Matthew Hayden and
Michael Clarke.
One reason for building the new Rose Bowl ground was to attract international cricket to the south coast of England. England has traditionally had six grounds where Test and ODI cricket has been played:
The Oval,
Lord's,
Trent Bridge,
Edgbaston,
Old Trafford and
Headingley.
Durham was the first of the other centres to put forward a claim for international status, building the
Riverside Ground in
Chester-le-Street, which has played host to Test matches between England and Zimbabwe in
2003, and England and
Bangladesh in
2005.
Amongst this competitive background, as part of a four year staging agreement the Rose Bowl hosted a
one-day international between
South Africa and
Zimbabwe in
2003. It was scheduled to play host to a one-dayer between the West Indies and
New Zealand in
2004, but this was called off because of rain.
The Rose Bowl was also selected as one of three venues to host five matches in the ICC Champions Trophy in September 2004, along with The Oval and Edgbaston. Five fixtures were played there. It hosted England's first
twenty20 International, played against Australia in
2005.
The ground is also used occasionally for
concerts, most recently hosting
Oasis in July 2005.
*
Official website
