HAMPSHIRE coach Graeme Welch insists the Hawks are heading to Guyana with the intention of winning the inaugural T20 Global Super League.

Bowling specialist Welch will lead the Hampshire side in next month's competition with Adi Birrell in South Africa as head of Sunrisers Eastern Cape.

Hampshire will visit South America for at least four T20 fixtures, taking on the Guyana Amazon Warriors, Rangpur Riders, Victoria, and Lahore Qalanders.

Two group leaders will guarantee $250,000 of the total $1million prize pot and play in a grand finale for the maximum $500,000 reward.

Hampshire's first match against Rangpur Riders will begin at 11pm GMT on Wednesday, November 27, at Guyana National Stadium in Providence.

Speaking to the Daily Echo, Welch said: "It's all seem to come together over the last couple of weeks and it seems very good, organised competition.

"Playing against teams from all over the world will be a good challenge. I think the Guyana Warriors will be very strong because it's their home conditions.

"Our analysis fella's going to have a lot of work to do and the teams will all be using it to prepare for different things. For us, it breaks the winter up.

"It gives a lot of the young lads who haven't played franchise cricket a great experience and it should be a very, very good competition."

Welch continued: "We're going to take 14 players. We're probably taking an extra seamer, extra butter and an extra spinner, and then we've got four staff.

"Adi's in the T20 competition and won't be able to do it and I think Jimmy (Adams) is going to Australia to work with the Hobart Hurricanes.

"It gives me a good opportunity to develop and challenge myself. I was head coach at Derby for two or three years but I'm looking forward to being in that role.

"We're all going to have to chip in as we won't have strength and conditioning staff or anything like that, in, so it's going to be old-school warm-ups. It's going to be old-school."

Welch says he will take a "good blend" of young talent and experience that could include new overseas players, with most Hampshire aces available for selection.

The tournament comes before the Australian Big Bash League begins, although the Abu Dhabi T10 is set to overlap the games in Guyana.

The T20 Global Super League has received a mixed reception from supporters, with some concerned by the continued franchising of domestic cricket.

But as well as providing Hampshire with a chance to win prize money more than the 2024 T20 Blast winners, it means the club no longer lies dormant for over four months.

"If half a million dollars doesn't excite people then I think there's something wrong with that," quipped Welch.

"It's obviously a nice thing to win the money but there's a lot more to it than just the prize money. It's the experience more than anything.

"I'll probably start next week where I'll just start laying a few targets and motives for the squad. I want us to have some fun. I want us to be disciplined.

"I want us to create some memories. I want us to enjoy the experience and learn from it, basically. I want us to win it.

"Those are the pillars of what I'll be trying to put forward. But the main thing is I want to try and win it. We report back on November 4 and I am looking forward to it."

Durham-born Welch will pass on his experience of playing cricket overseas, despite playing down his spell with New Zealand's Wellington in the late 1990s.

Welch scored nearly 8,000 competitive runs and took nearly 700 wickets across all formats in his playing career and attributes some of that to his experience abroad. 

"I also went to South Africa when I was very young, just to play club cricket. You learn to look after yourself," Welch said. 

"You've got to lead from the front and they're looking for you to be a role model. It's a great, great learning curve. It definitely helped me.

"It was later on in my career that I went over to play for Wellington in the domestic one-day competition. It could have gone better but it was a great experience.

"It'll be a great learning curve for all these lads, as it was me when I was younger," added Welch,

"Here at Hampshire, if there are a few lads who need anything glaringly technical to work on, we'll probably keep them for the winter.

"But if it's just getting time and for them to develop as individuals, we'd advocate sending them to play overseas as often as we could, to be honest."