HAMPSHIRE will start their County Championship campaign on Sunday, when Sussex are the visitors to the Ageas Bowl.

Tom Huelin caught up with Basingstoke-born Chris Wood ahead of the new season for his blog, which is published in full at deepextracover.com.

He has kindly let the Gazette have an extract and this is what Wood had to say about his winter and the forthcoming season.

"We’re in Division One this season, which is a great feeling!

"I’ve had a reasonably quiet winter from October to January, giving myself some time off following my knee operation last year.

"My knee is a lot better than it was. I had a scan after the season finished and it showed a little bit of stress around the area, which is to be expected.

"That cleared up around Christmas time, and while the issue is still there, if I manage it properly then hopefully I’ll be able to get through a season unscathed and really give it a good shot this year.

"If I can play between eight to 10 Championship games and most of the one-dayers, I’ll be over the moon.

"After Christmas, I started to get back into bowling. Then I was lucky enough to go to Desert Springs with the Tom Maynard Academy in February.

"Hampshire thought it would be beneficial for me to get outside as opposed to the hard floor of the indoor school. After that, we had our pre-season trip to Barbados, so it’s been a great pre-season.

"We’ve had a lot of player movement over the winter. Jackson Bird has arrived and we all know what he can do.

"He played for Australia and took loads of wickets in the Big Bash, so I think he’s going to be a great signing for us. Andre Adams was one of the best bowlers in county cricket a few years ago, so we’re hoping for similar for us this year.

"We’ve also got Gareth Berg, who is a very useful all-rounder, so hopefully they will all blend in well. If everyone stays fit, we will have a big shot at success.

"We’ve also lost a couple of guys. Things didn’t work out for Matt Coles and he’s decided to move back to Kent.

"Michael Bates has also gone, which is a big shame for me as he’s one of my best mates as well.

"The fact that he’s not been able to find another county is a shocker really, but hopefully something will come up for him soon.

"David Balcombe has also left and I think the time was right for him. I hope it will go really well for him at Surrey.

"Looking forward to the new season, the one-day competitions are non-negotiable for us.

"We want to be in the knockout stages of both the One-Day and Twenty20 tournaments, and if we’re not then it’ll be disappointing for us.

"Last season, finishing bottom of our group in the 50-over competition was very poor, and although it’s difficult to fight across all three formats for a whole season, it’s certainly something we’ll be looking to do this year.

"Whilst we obviously want to win all three tournaments, I personally feel that in the Championship, if we can get to a position where we can’t be relegated with four or five games to go, then we can really push for something more exciting from there.

"First and foremost we need to stay in the division. We haven’t got a massive squad, but we do have a very good squad. The batters in particular look in awesome shape, but we need to take 20 wickets a game, every game."