OPTIMISTIC Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove believes the county will be ready "to have a pop" at challening for the major honours in 2005.
Hampshire, though they have won promotion from both the second division of the championship and the national league in the last two years, have not lifted a trophy since winning the Benson & Hedges Cup in 1992.
But Bransgrove, pictured above, feels that wait could be ended next year - and his confidence has been further improved this week by the double signing of pace bowlers Sean Ervine and Richard Logan.
Ervine, 21, played five Tests and 42 one-day internationals for Zimbabwe before retiring from the international scene in May of this year as a result of the political strife that has enveloped the African nation.
He promptly relocated to Perth, where Hampshire manager Paul Terry runs a cricket academy, and signed for Western Australia.
Ervine is registered under the Kolpak ruling, meaning he is not classified as an overseas player.
Logan, like Ervine, has signed a two-year contract after failing to be offered a new deal after three years at Nottinghamshire.
Bransgrove enthused: "This is great news - I'm very, very delighted indeed.
"I'm sure Sean Ervine will make a major impact - he is someone we hope to have a long association with."
Ervine has already admitted he could one day qualify to play Test cricket for Australia, though Bransgrove is hoping he might choose England instead.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he interested (England coach) Duncan Fletcher," said the Rose Bowl chief.
Logan, 24, forced himself into the forefront of Terry's mind when he took match figures of 8-90 as Notts thrashed Hampshire by an innings at The Rose Bowl last June.
"I've only seen him play once and he made a real mess of us," remarked Bransgrove.
"He made us look quite ordinary and there weren't many people who did that last season.
"I know they had a rotation policy at Notts last season for their pace bowlers, and that's a good idea - you can't ask fast bowlers to play in every game.
"And with Chris Tremlett getting ever close to the England set-up, we thought it was time we gave ourselves more options in that area."
Logan is best of friends with new England player Kevin Pietersen, who is a free agent after turning down a new contract at Trent Bridge.
Asked whether Logan's arrival at West End could help sweet-talk the highly-rated Pietersen into coming to West End, Bransgrove said: "Kevin Pietersen is one player we are interested in.
"We haven't stopped here. It's safe to say we are looking at bringing in another player in addition to the two we've signed and in addition to the two overseas players."
Hampshire finished third in the one-day league in 2004 in their first season after promotion.
And, with the championship also having a top division of just nine counties, of which three go down, Bransgrove insisted there was no point in looking just to consolidate next summer.
"It's not the same as football," he said. "The gap between the first and second divisions isn't that great.
"It's quite dynamic - the team who won the title in 2003 (Sussex) were only halfway this year and Lancashire, who were expected to do well this year, went down.
"We want to get up there with the very best next year, we want to have a pop.
"With regards to the national league, we finished third and we think we only need to make a few minor changes in order to really challenge for that title."
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