Shane Warne meets the press

Paul Terry, Nick Pike, Shane Warne and Tim Tremlett

Hampshire's new captain Shane Warne met the press today at The Rose Bowl. The scrum of press and photographers was testament to the stature of the man. At the press conference he answered questions with an enthusiastic tone.

"Hampshire is my second home - I've lots of good friends here. The Rose Bowl is a fantastic place to play cricket and the ground is in unbelievable condition. There is a really good feeling here. The club have their visions and dreams and I want to help them fulfil them.

It's an honour and a privilege to captain Hampshire. We have some talented players here - there is no excuse for not doing well, it's time for us to start delivering. We have a good crop of players, and we have 15-16 players who are in contention for a place.

Our aim will be to play good consistent aggressive cricket, and I want to play exciting cricket and always aim to win games. We are still talking about the style and way we are going to play, but everybody is itching to get out and start on Friday.

We are still discussing a possible vice-captain. We may have one or we may just appoint someone to take over when I'm away.

Michael Clarke is the best young player in Australia. He hasn't played a lot of cricket in his career yet, but he's shown in the one-day internationals, with some unbelievable innings, that he is a very talented wonderful player. He is a very good signing and lots of people were after him so we have done well to get him here. He's a very aggressive player who likes to get in the face of the opposition.

For myself the year break from the game has done me a power of good, both mentally and physically - with my shoulder and fingers getting a good chance to heal and strengthen - and my bowling in Sri Lanka was as good as I have ever bowled. I haven't set myself a goal for number of wickets for Hampshire - I don't tend to set targets".