Shaun Udal reckons Hampshire's squad is the strongest it has been for more than a decade.

The veteran off-spinner is the only survivor from the side that won the Benson & Hedges Cup at Lord's in 1992.

But Udal, 36, reckons the addition of Kevin Pietersen can help the county repeat the success he enjoyed at the beginning of his Hampshire career.

He said: "This is probably the strongest squad Hampshire have had since the late eighties and early nineties.

"We'll have KP (Kevin Pietersen) for the start of the season, and we'll lose Warney and Kat (Simon Katich) for some of it, but in terms of ability the first choice XI is very close to the side we had in 1992.

"What we don't have at the moment is a proven international fast bowler like Malcolm Marshall.

"But you'll never replace Malcolm Marshall and what we have got are players like Chris Tremlett, who can be a proven match winner, Richard Logan, who can send the ball down at a fair rate of knots, and Billy Taylor, who did a good job for us last year."

Hampshire's squad today returned to Southampton after three days of training at Sandhurst, where they concentrated on team development with exercises in swimming, shooting, orienteering and Gurkha cookery.

It followed their successful first visit to the Royal Military Academy last year, when they followed the likes of England's World Cup winning rugby team, Northampton Saints rugby club and the England cricket academy in booking three days training at army HQ.

Udal added: "In the past we've tried the route of expensive pre-season tours, where you go out on hard, fast bouncy wickets, but that doesn't really prepare you for coming back to slow wickets in a wet and cold April.

"We get more out of pre-season by coming here for a few days."

Derek Kenway and John Crawley both missed Hampshire's second day at Sandhurst with flu.

Dimitri Mascarenhas is currently playing a cup final for Melville at the WACA, and Simon Katich and captain Shane Warne are both playing for Australia in New Zealand.

"You can't do the bulk of the planning until Warney arrives because his approach to cricket and his philosophy is so important but he still contributed to our first week back by sending a two-page e-mail to the team!" added Udal.

"It covered everything he possibly could and expressed what he wants from everybody.

"It talked about individual demands and what he expects in terms of ethics within the dressing room.

"That positive outlook and will to win will never change and no doubt he'll be forcing those down our throats when he arrives."

Australia's three Test series against the Kiwis ends in Auckland on Wednesday and Warne and Katich are due to arrive back in Southampton on April 5.