Hampshire bowling coach Bruce Reid is impressed with the balance of Hampshire's attack.

Reid, a left-arm quick in his playing days, has fellow southpaws like Alan Mullally, James Tomlinson and a certain Wasim Akram to work with.

But he reckons there is plenty of variety amongst Hampshire's battery of seam bowlers.

Reid said: "Wasim Akram and Ed Giddins coming has made a huge difference as the bowling was a bit thin last year. Chris Tremlett, Alan Mullally and Ed Giddins won't play all the time because we're going to play a spinner and an all-rounder like Dimitri Mascarenhas but we've certainly got good variety.

"We've got a good left-hander in Alan Mullally and a world class left-hander in Wasim and Eddie's played Test cricket, while Chris Tremlett is big and quick.

"I think it's a good mix and we've got a good spinner as well. If they're all playing well there's no reason why we can't succeed in the field."

Durham University pair James Bruce and Mark Thorburn have been training with Hampshire during pre-season, while James Tomlinson is set to lead the Cardiff University attack against Sussex over the Easter weekend.

Reid added: "James looks really good. We've done a bit of video work with him and he goes all right, he's got plenty of guts. He gets in there and gives it a real go and can do a little bit with the ball as well.

"In James Bruce and Thorburn there's some good home-grown talent. They've got to perform in the second grade but Thorbs has come on well.

"He's not super quick but he's consistent, he bowls good lines and good lengths and Bruce is a skiddy bowler who hits the deck hard, a bowler who rushes batsmen a bit.

"He bowls the odd one that goes through and is always there or thereabouts. They can all do a job in the side if they're required. They're not guys who are going to take five wickets but they're capable of doing a job from one end, keeping it tight and maybe taking two or three wickets."

Reid, who returns to Western Australia next month, added: "This is probably the most dangerous time of the year for players because they're doing net and gym sessions and really putting their body under quite a bit of pressure.

"There's a lot of soreness from running and weights sessions but next week that will be cut back and we'll find that a lot of those niggles will disappear.

"In the first week we did a lot of video work and found out where the players wanted to go and tried to work together to get the best out of them, not only physically but in terms of swinging and seaming the ball.

"Now we're simply talking about how to get batsmen out, giving bowlers six balls to try and bowl maidens and build up pressure.

"It seems like fairly basic stuff but sometimes young guys just go out there and bowl the ball without actually thinking about what they're doing."