NICK PIKE insists Hampshire cricket have no plans to play any home matches away from their state-of-the-art Rose Bowl stadium.

The managing director dismissed accusations from Portsmouth councillor Jezz Baker that the club might as well be renamed Southampton CCC.

"We want to appeal to all cricket lovers in all parts of Hampshire," he said.

"We are a county club, not a town-based club.

"We want to appeal to people in the north of the county as much as to the people in the south.

"In fact I believe we appeal to people outside the county. We have members who live in Dorset, Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight.

"We are fully committed to developing the Rose Bowl into the premier events venue in the south.

"This is a big year for us and so far things are going very well."

Pike declared last Friday's Twenty20 Cup opener against Sussex, played against the backdrop of the Rose Bowl's biggest ever crowd, "a tremendous success.

"You only get a balanced view by speaking to people, and everyone I've spoken to has said it was a superb evening.

"The older members I spoke to all loved it, and yesterday I watched my son play cricket and everyone was talking about the Twenty20 there as well.

"I really couldn't fault anything about the evening, I really couldn't.

"I know from our database that a lot of people came to the Rose Bowl for the first time, and I hope they were impressed with what they saw.

"We want people to come and use all our facilities here - not just the cricket ground, but the golf course, the health and fitness club, the conference and banqueting facilities."

Concerts are planned later this summer by pop favourites Blue and Darius, plus a visit from the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra.

"This year's events are the sort of thing we will be aiming to put on every year," said Pike.

While 9,000 crammed into the ground for the Sussex match the Mis-Teeq pop concert that followed it, Pike admits he has no real idea how many could attend Wednesday's home clash with Essex.

"We're hoping for another good crowd, obviously," he said. "It will be another fun evening, there's a band playing afterwards and there'll be some fireworks as well."