Hampshire are set to start the season with Imran Tahir as their overseas player following Marcus North’s Australia call up.

Leg-spinner Tahir, who qualifies to play for South Africa today, was initially due to begin his second stint with the county in June.

North was lined up to play for Hampshire for the first six weeks of the season, but his inclusion in Australia’s one-day squad means he is unavailable for the county’s first three Championship matches.

The good news is that Hampshire are close to an agreement with the Titans, Tahir’s South African employers, that would see the 30-year-old step in for the county’s opening home Championship matches against Worcestershire and Sussex, either side of a trip to Edgbaston to play Warwickshire.

North is in South Africa for Australia’s one-day series against the Proteas, which starts on Friday, and Hampshire expect him to retain his place for five more one-day internationals and a Twenty20 international, against Pakistan in Dubai from April 22 - May 7.

But he will still fulfil his Hampshire contract for the bulk of the county’s Friends Provident Trophy campaign - and the first few Twenty20 group games - before again being replaced by Tahir at the beginning of June.

Hampshire manager Giles White said: “It’s not completely firmed up, I’m still talking to [Titans coach] Richard Pybus about exactly how many games Imran will be available for because he is primarily contracted to the Titans and we don’t want to overbowl him, we want what’s best for him.”

Tahir has played first-class cricket without a break since the start of his Hampsire career last July.

He turned the county’s season around with 44 Championship wickets at just 16.7 apiece last summer.

Since then he has claimed 29 victims at 26.5 for the Titans in South Africa’s Supersport Series.

Tahir should be available for Hampshire throughout June - September as South Africa do not have any fixtures, other then the World Twenty20, before hosting England at the end of the year.