John Crawley believes that replacing the Benson & Hedges Cup with the Twenty20 is good news for English cricket.
Hampshire captain Crawley won the B & H twice with Lancashire in 1995 and 1996 and won the Gold Award in his and Hampshire's
last appearance in the competition.
But he was still not sorry to see the
'Bensons' dropped after 30 years on the county calendar.
"It was a good cup but it was a bit unfortunate that it had to be crammed into a hectic schedule," he said. "Because the zonal games were played so early in the season it just became a little bit of a lottery.
"The weather often meant that you played on a pitch that wasn't as good as it could be for a one-day game and that often made it difficult to get through that zonal stage."
Crawley is now fully focused on the Twenty20 opener against Sussex at The Rose Bowl tomorrow. Having played in two trial 20-over games against Middlesex last season and an inter-squad match on the club's open day, he has a good idea of what to expect.
"We're playing pretty well in one-day cricket so far this year and this is just an extension of that," he said. "Hopefully we can take our form into the 20-over games but everything is obviously going to be a little bit quicker.
"There will be less time to play yourself in and rebuild if you do lose wickets and the two periods at the start and end of an innings will probably be doubly intense than in the longer versions of the game.
"The old adage of having a look will still apply. You'll still need a few balls to familiarise yourself with the surroundings and the pace of the game but, if you're a good enough player and you're in good enough form, you'll back yourself to hit a bad ball."
James Hamblin is expected to replace Robin Smith but otherwise Hampshire should field the same side that beat Durham on Sunday.
"There will have to be a lot of flexibility, I don't think it can be a very stereotyped game," added Crawley. "The shorter game will have definite advantages for the players who employ different skills, both batting, bowling and fielding.
"It's difficult to know what a very good score will be but I would think anything in excess of 180 is defendable if you bowl and field well and have a bit of luck."
Hampshire (probable): Kenway, Hamblin, Crawley, Katich, Kendall, Pothas, Mascarenhas, Wasim Akram, Udal, Mullally, Giddins.
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