BASHLEY skipper Richard Morris has welcomed the influx of young Australians to the Southern Premier League - even if he thinks it has given participating clubs “a huge leg up”.

Morris said it was a route his club had not considered in favour of trying to strengthen links with Perth-based Melville Cricket Club, home to current Bash overseas player Sean Terry. Four Premier Division clubs - Bournemouth, Ventnor, Lymington and Totton & Eling - this season recruited young Aussies from the Ageas Bowl International Cricket Academy.

South Australia's Travis Head and Western Australia's Will Bosisto helped respective clubs Ventnor and Totton & Eling inflict crushing defeats on Bashley in the past three weeks.

Bashley will be hoping to avoid another Aussie-inspired setback when they host Lymington tomorrow with New South Walian Scott Henry set to open the batting for the visitors (11.30am). Asked for his thoughts on the link up, Morris, above, said: “In all honesty, I am pretty much for it and anything that strengthens the league can only be a good thing. “The only thing I would say is that almost overnight it has given those four clubs a huge leg up from where they were a year ago.

“I would like to think the improvements we made last year were more in-house and perhaps more strategically planned and we have been caught up. “The challenge for us now is to find ways to improve even more. “We steered away from the Australian route simply because we were very happy with what Sean Terry did for us last year and are delighted with how he has started this year.

“It is no coincidence that those clubs that finished towards the bottom of the league last year were the ones who jumped at the chance to have these players. “That is understandable but almost overnight those clubs, through complete luck, have caught up on us quite a bit and we need to make sure we are playing a bit better than we are.”

Bashley forged links with Melville some years ago and several players, including current New Zealand international Luke Ronchi, have turned out for the New Forest outfit.

Morris added: “Our links with Sean haven't just been developed overnight and we have a history of sourcing our club pros from Melville. “It is not like we have just avoided the other Aussies and got our own from a different city. “It is a long-standing relationship which we are keen to develop and keep if we can.”

Wicketkeeper Dan Friedman returns from injury for Bashley, although Lymington are without in-form all-rounder Matt Metcalfe who is unavailable after bagging nine wickets against South Wilts last weekend.

Alex Keath is the fourth Aussie in the SEPL top flight, at Bournemouth.