Dimi: Big chance for Royals youngsters (From This is Hampshire)

Dimi: Big chance for Royals youngsters to shine

8:52am Tuesday 9th October 2012 in Hampshire Sport By Simon Walter, Senior Sports Reporter

DIMI Mascarenhas believes Hampshire’s youngsters will attract offers from the Indian Premier League if they impress at the Twenty20 Champions League in South Africa.

The Royals have to win their qualifiers against Auckland Aces at Centurion tomorrow and Sialkot Stallions at The Wanderers, Johannesburg if they are to progress to the competition.

Should they do so, they will be up against the likes of Kevin Pietersen’s Delhi Daredevils and the Kolkata Knight Riders as well as Simon Katich’s Perth Scorchers (Australia) and Titans (South Africa).

The prospect of playing against superstars like Morne Morkel and Mahela Jayawardene (Delhi) and Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee and Brendon McCullum (Kolkata) is an exciting one for all Hampshire’s players.

“It’s a great opportunity to put ourselves up there with those sorts of teams,” said Mascarenhas.

“All the IPL people will be keeping a close eye on the Champions League, there are four IPL sides there and we’re playing against two of them so it’s also a huge opportunity, if the lads do well, to gain IPL contracts.

“We’ve had an unbelievable run this year in the one-day formats so the boys are really excited. They think these things happen all the time!”

Full story in today's Daily Echo