SHANE WARNE will defy the Australian selectors and return to Hampshire's Rose Bowl in April.

Warne will be on Ashes duty from mid-July but has confirmed he will begin his second season as Hampshire captain on April 13 - by responding to chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns's calls for Australia's bowlers to rest after the New Zealand tour in March. Hohns said: "We want all of our bowlers, whether they are in the Test side or not, to be fresh for that tour.

We can't tell them not to play county cricket. We can only talk to them. It is very difficult to say you can't go but we are hopeful of talking to those in the frame within due course."

But Warne can't wait for the start of Hampshire's first season in the top division of both the totesport League and the county championship - which begins at home to Gloucestershire in two months' time.

Warne said: "I'll be playing for Hampshire this summer. Glenn McGrath likes to keep bowling, so playing county cricket won't harm him.

"And I can assure Trevor Hohns I will be as fit as a daisy for the Ashes."

Today marks the first anniversary of Warne's return to cricket following his one-year ban for taking a banned diuretic before the 2003 World Cup.

In that time, he has taken an astonishing 172 wickets in all cricket, with 140 of them first class - including 75 in 13 Tests at 25.06.

Not only is the 35-year now the leading wicket-taker in the history of Test cricket, with 566 scalps at 25.62, but he needs just ten more in first class cricket for 1,000 - and could reach his latest milestone by the end of the month.

Warne is set to play in Victoria's next Pura Cup match, which begins on February 24. And, with three Tests coming up in New Zealand in the second half of March, he will fancy his chances of joining Philip De Freitas, Martin Bicknell and Mushtaq Ahmed as one of the few current players with 1,000 first class wickets, before he is back at The Rose Bowl.

His whirlwind last 12 months has come as no surprise to Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove, who wants the 35-year-old to finish his career with the county.

He said: "If anything, the break has done him good.

"I knew he'd come back with a bang, because he sets his standards so high, and I'd like to sign him on a multiple year contract.

"The maximum we're allowed by the ECB for overseas players is two years.

"But I'm sure we will renew that, as he's prepared to commit himself to Hampshire for a long time."