HAMPSHIRE manager Paul Terry wants to sign England batsman Kevin Pietersen.

Pietersen who is in England's one-day squad for next month's tour of Zimbabwe, is available after rejecting a lucrative three-year deal at Nottinghamshire, where he has played for the last three years.

And Terry, who has recognised the need for an "explosive" batsman to add to Hampshire's top order, wants the 24-year-old to boost his squad in 2005.

Terry said: "Kevin Pietersen would definitely be very handy. He's an explosive player and is certainly someone we'd be keen to have a chat with.

"Thankfully he hasn't got too many runs against us in the past, but it's not often that players with a career record of over 50 become available - John Crawley was the last in that category - and the England selectors clearly believe he has a lot of ability."

Pietersen wanted to leave Notts last year amid stories of dressing room unrest, but he saw out the remainder of his contract before quitting - and four first division counties have already made offers for him

Terry added: "I was surprised when I heard he was available, there were strong rumours that he wanted to leave Notts last year but I thought that had settled down.

"It's an interesting situation and I'm sure there'll be more than four counties after him soon."

Pietersen was born and raised in Natal but rejected the chance to play for South Africa and qualified to play for England last month, having represented Notts as a home qualified player, courtesy of an English mother and a British passport.

After leaving Notts yesterday, he said: "I need a new challenge because I felt I was in a comfort zone. For purely cricket reasons I felt the time had come for me to move on.

"Money is not an issue for me because if I do well in my cricket career, the money is going to come,

"When you go to a new county you have to prove yourself again and this will be good for my game."

Pietersen's record against Hampshire (160 championship runs at 26.66) is relatively poor.

But he has averaged more than 50 in each of his three seasons with Notts, and this year he helped the east midlands county to two promotions with 965 championship runs at 53.61, including four hundreds, and 531 National League runs at 40.84.

Former Yorkshire seamer Steve Kirby, who last month spoke of his desire to talk to Hampshire, has signed for Gloucestershire.