Rod Bransgrove is keen for Hampshire to take the Twenty20 Cup more seriously next season.

The Hampshire chairman is keen for the county to become one of the country's first two entrants into the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League.

Teams from Australia, South Africa and India will also be represented next October, but Bransgrove knows it will take a huge improvement for the county to be one of the eight sides involved.

Since the Twenty20 Cup was conceived, Hampshire have gone beyond the group stage on one occasion in five years - and even then they were thumped by nine wickets in a quarter-final against Lancashire in 2004.

Captain Shane Warne has made just two Twenty20 appearances for Hampshire in four seasons and this year manager Paul Terry used the competition as an opportunity to give experience to the younger members of the squad.

Next season the Twenty20 Cup is bigger than ever -the group stage has expanded to ten games so counties play every team in their group home and away - and Bransgrove is hoping it will be a watershed season.

He said: "I'm asking Paul to focus on the Twenty20 Cup more next season because we've been c**p at it so far!

"It's the most lucrative tournament but I'm not sure we've taken it seriously enough.

"We've allowed it to bypass us."

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