JIMMY Adams is preparing to make his debut for the Auckland Aces in New Zealand’s domestic Twenty20 competition.

Hampshire’s player of the year will make his debut in the HRV Cup tomorrow after leaving Australia midway through the England Performance Programme’s tour.

Adams will face Central Districts in the early hours of the morning with his teammates keen to avenge their defeat in last season’s HRV Cup final.

“The lads have told me the decks are good here so I’m looking forward to it,” said Adams, who watched Ian Blackwell and Michael Yardy power Central Districts to a big win against Northern Districts in the tournament opener earlier today.

“A lot of players will be new to me and it’s always nice to get an idea of what I’ll be coming across,” he said.

“In county cricket I play against the same guys week in week out so I’ll watch the other games as much as I can.

“But the guys in the dressing room have been brilliant and they’ve also given me a fair bit of information.”

Adams scored a record- breaking 668 runs as the Hampshire Royals won last year’s Friends Provident t20 competition, including two centuries.

But he is not setting him self any targets in the HRV Cup.

“I want to have a positive effect on the team but won’t say I want ‘x’ amount of runs,” he said. “If I get runs and we win games that will be awesome, but I’ll just con centrate on doing the simple things.”

Andre Adams, Nottinghamshire’s dynamic all-rounder, will be playing alongside his Hampshire namesake as Auckland’s other overseas player, despite being born in Auckland and having played for New Zealand in all for mats.

Four of Auckland’s squad – Daryl Tuffey, Kyle Mills, Martin Guptill and wicket keeper Gareth Hopkins – are currently in India with New Zealand’s one-day party.

But they are captained by Lou Vincent and will include another former New Zealand international in Chris Martin tomorrow.

Coach Paul Strang said: “Twenty20 can get very com plicated very quickly so it’s important to bring it back to basics.”

Central Districts will not have dangerman Ross Taylor, who is also in India.

Meanwhile, Danny Briggs will aim to boost his England Lions chances tonight when the England Performance Programme take on the Retravision Warriors in a one-day game.

Briggs was due to take part in a training and match preparation day with the rest of the squad today. The EPP play the final four-day game of their tour against a Western Australia XI, from December 7-10.

Auckland’s HRV Cup fixtures: Central Districts (h, Dec 3), Northern Districts (h, Dec 5), Otago (a, Dec 10), Canterbury (a, 12), Wellington (a, Dec 16), Otago (h, Dec 18), Wellington (h, Dec 19), Canterbury (h, Dec 21), Northern Districts (a, Dec 27), Central Districts (a, Dec 29).