Hampshire red ball captain, Ben Brown, looks ahead to the season

The News, Portsmouth

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00:00Yeah, so obviously, beautiful sunshine, County Championships a couple of days away.

00:04How's it all feeling?

00:05Yeah, great. It's a huge excitement around the squad.

00:07And as you say, the weather is helping.

00:09Often this time of year, it's freezing cold and, you know, raining.

00:12So, no, it's great that the weather's set fair.

00:14So, yeah, it's been a good pre-season.

00:16Just can't wait to get going now for Friday.

00:18Perfect. Obviously, James Vince isn't here this year.

00:21Obviously, you've taken over the captaincy for the Red Bull.

00:25You could say big shoes to fill, as you've been here for quite a long time.

00:28How's the difficulty? How's it been?

00:30Yeah, good. It's probably not the smartest thing to do, take over for Vincey.

00:33But no, he's done an incredible job at Hampshire.

00:35He's a generational player and an amazing leader.

00:38So, yeah, we spoke in the group.

00:40It's not going to be one person that fills those shoes.

00:42It's going to be incredibly difficult.

00:43So, we're all going to have to step up,

00:45you know, both as leaders and on the field as well as off the field.

00:48We have to fill, you know, those enormous shoes that he left.

00:51But it'll be a great challenge for everybody.

00:55How would you say your captaincy and your leadership differs from him?

00:58How would you say the difference is there?

01:00I'm not sure, really. I think those things will evolve over time.

01:03Vincey had his style. I think we had a lot of similarities out on the field.

01:07I think we probably bonded over the desire to win and a competitive nature.

01:14So, hopefully it won't be too different.

01:16I think it's in the DNA here at Hampshire to try and win games of cricket.

01:20That's what we love doing. So, yeah, hopefully it won't be a huge amount of change or unrest.

01:24I think it'll be, yeah, hopefully pretty similar.

01:27Obviously, Sussex have been promoted this year. It's a new team from the area.

01:31Are you looking forward to that match-up?

01:33Obviously, you've attended the rivalry to the first-class cricket.

01:36Yeah, definitely. I'm really pleased to see Sussex on the way up.

01:39Yeah, it's my home club and it's where I've played for so long.

01:42So, I've still got a lot of friends there.

01:43And yeah, it's great to see the club going well.

01:45And yeah, I think we've got two fixtures against them.

01:48And it's especially nice to go back to home and play a Championship game.

01:51I'll be looking forward to it.

01:53And are Surrey still the team to beat, do you think?

01:55Yeah, they have to be. I think it's an incredible achievement,

01:57what they've done, putting three Championships in a row.

02:00Yeah, I think you'd probably think whoever finishes above them would win the Championship.

02:05So, yeah, definitely the team to beat.

02:07And yeah, obviously, Hampshire has conferred us and come three years in a row.

02:12How do you think the team can make that kind of next step? What needs to be done?

02:15Yeah, I think we can be really proud of what we've achieved over the last few years as a team to finish high in the league.

02:21Obviously, with a team like Surrey, you have to keep pushing and get better.

02:24I think, you know, if you turn up the same side, they keep moving on, they keep getting stronger.

02:28So it's on the other counties to do exactly the same.

02:31And, you know, we spoke about that off the field, we have to keep driving our standards.

02:34We have to keep pushing forward and hope that, you know, if Surrey do slip,

02:38then you want to be the team that cashes in.

02:40And, you know, that's a challenge for all the counties in Division One here.

02:44And just lastly, obviously, T20 is kind of the major thing that's at the forefront of world cricket.

02:50And that's where quite a lot of the money is.

02:51But how important to you is the county championship?

02:54And do you think it should be that should be kind of the forefront of domestic cricket?

02:58I'm not sure, really. I think the game's evolved so much from obviously when I started, you know, 2007 time,

03:04you know, obviously Championship cricket and Test cricket was the main thing.

03:08But now T20 is huge as well. I think here, actually, we're pretty split in how we go about it.

03:13We always talk about trying to win all three formats.

03:15And I think there's a sort of huge bias one way or another.

03:17So, yeah, the Championship feels, you know, of high importance here.

03:21The club invests really well in the Championship.

03:23And certainly as a squad, I love playing for Hampshire.

03:25We love Championship cricket and we're hugely committed to it.

03:28So, yeah, can't wait to go in.

03:31I said lastly, one more.

03:33Yeah, so obviously, we always want to aim to win all three.

03:36Is it very difficult to do? Where do you think the best chances are this year?

03:40I'm not sure, to be honest. I think, as I say, I think it's a refreshing thing about Hampshire.

03:44We go into every conflict to win.

03:46Yeah, there's certainly no talk of developing or anything like this.

03:49It's about winning, you know, and doing the other things alongside trying to win.

03:52So, no, we'll be targeting all three comps and, yeah, I can't wait for it.

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