The Hampshire years: How Shane Warne's eccentric captaincy transformed a county

Shane Warne would always call Hampshire “my second home” and it certainly felt fortunate to start out in regional journalism in the same year that the most famous cricketer in the world had joined the local first-class club. 

In the same way as Lawrie McMenemy had caused Southampton jaws to drop when he unveiled European Footballer of the Year Kevin Keegan 20 years earlier, Warne’s arrival in 2000 was a genuine ‘where were you moment’ that also owed much to the charisma of one visionary: Hampshire Cricket’s chairman Rod Bransgrove.

Warne was already a global superstar and, although the Hampshire years were naturally a side-show in the grand sweep of such a remarkable career, they did shine a unique light into a man oft-described as “the best captain Australia never had”.

First and foremost, he was always endearingly self-effacing in how he treated any stranger. “Pleased to meet you mate - my name’s Shane,” he would say, thrusting out his hand as if there was genuinely no reason to assume anyone might know who he was.

He would engage with the local newspaper with as much thought and passion as an appearance on the Parkinson show. And, amid everything else that was going on professionally and personally, threw himself behind Bransgrove’s transformation of Hampshire with as much vigour as any Ashes series. The club were in the final year at their old Northlands Road home when Warne arrived. They were regularly hosting international cricket at the Rose Bowl and had gone within a whisker of winning the County Championship for the first time since 1973 when he left seven years later.

Warne was desperate to win that competition - “the winners get to meet the Queen,” he would say - and his four years as captain between 2004 and