John Crawley will miss his first Hampshire Hawks game in 20 months tomorrow.

As Hampshire captain, Crawley was an ever-present in the National League last year and finished the season as one of the competition's leading runscorers in leading the Hawks to promotion.

That persuaded bookmakers Totesport, the new sponsors of the National League, to quote Crawley as 12/1 to finish as the First Division's leading run scorer behind the likes of Surrey's Mark Ramprakash, the favourite at 11/2, and Warwickshire pair Nick Knight (8-1) and Ian Bell (11-1).

But tomorrow he will be missing from Hampshire's one-day league side for the first time since September 2002.

He is also a major doubt for the championship match against Leicestershire at the Rose Bowl, which starts on Wednesday, after tearing a calf muscle during the three-wicket win against Durham.

"It's a big blow, he's an important part of our side," admitted manager Paul Terry, who, along with captain Shane Warne, will choose from a 13-man squad made up of the rest of the team that beat Durham, plus James Hamblin, Lawrie Prittipaul and Shaun Udal.

Hampshire are in the First Division for the first time since they were relegated in 1999, county cricket's first season with two divisions.

Totesport have made them third favourites for relegation behind Glamorgan and Northants, who were promoted in second place last season.

But Terry does not believe that there is a massive gulf between the divisions.

"I don't think there'll be a huge gap," he added. "I'll be surprised if Lancashire don't prove to be one of the better sides in the division and they were promoted with us last year so we know what to expect, especially as we played against one or two of the other teams in the Twenty 20 last year.

"But you can never really tell who are the best one- day sides before the start of the season because the best teams aren't necessarily the ones with the best players, it's about getting on a roll as a team.

"Warwickshire have got a lot of good young batsmen in James Troughton, Ian Bell and Mark Wagh. They're a good side, they've been in the First Division for a couple of years, but I'd like to think we can finish above them."

Hampshire: Kenway, Brown, Clarke, Kendall, Pothas, Mascarenhas, Tremlett, Warne (capt), Taylor, Mullally, Udal, Prittipaul, Hamblin.