Hampshire seam bowler Kyle Abbott is looking ahead to a season of potential milestones with 600 first class wickets within touching distance.
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00:00 How's your winter going?
00:02 It's been good thank you. I've been here most of the time. Normally I'm in South Africa.
00:06 But we recently had our first little boy and my wife is over here.
00:10 It's been an interesting winter but from a cricketing point of view it's been good.
00:14 We went out to Spain a couple of weeks ago and did some good work out there.
00:18 We played this park a little bit last week for our warm up game.
00:22 So have you been getting much sleep despite the...
00:25 He's actually been ok. I must admit we've heard some horror stories around this one.
00:31 But we've got lucky with this one.
00:33 So you've been at Hampshire for a little while now and you've come back and forth.
00:38 How do you feel coming into this season compared to others?
00:42 I certainly feel personally and from a squad point of view I think everyone's a lot fitter and stronger than we have been in the last couple of years.
00:50 We felt that it was probably an area that we could work on. Just looking at results we've got across the line here and there.
00:58 But maybe there's a little edge somewhere. That's something that we've really tried to work hard on over the winter.
01:04 So from a personal point of view and the squad everyone seems to be in good shape.
01:10 What's the aims this year? Personally I see you've covered some milestones.
01:15 You've got 400 Wicket marking in Tuscarawka.
01:19 600. 400 for Hampshire and I think I'm 600 overall. So there's a few.
01:26 But yeah, if I can contribute to the ball it's going to put Hampshire in a good position to challenge for a championship.
01:35 We've been working so hard towards that over the last couple of years.
01:38 Hopefully it's our year. I've been saying that the 50-over comp was very close last year and so was the T20.
01:46 So we're always there in their abouts and that's great to hear.
01:49 Not every county can say that they're competing for three trophies every year, which we have been doing.
01:54 Hopefully we can put a few in the cup next year.
01:58 Do you think that takes a toll? That you're going to be challenging on three bumps?
02:02 Is that a reason to reach in one?
02:08 I don't think so. No.
02:11 In the end you could get four, but that's all that counts really.
02:16 In terms of the championship, you started one in the last couple of years.
02:19 Are they still the people you think are the ones to beat?
02:24 Obviously they've strengthened this year as well.
02:26 Yeah, they are. But if you see the rest of the championship, there's so many strong sides.
02:33 Durham coming out, I think they're going to be a threat this year.
02:36 Warwickshire, Lancashire, they've come out five strong teams.
02:40 Essex, I can name all of them really.
02:44 In Division 1, that's a reason why they're there.
02:47 We're going to have to play good cricket. There's no guarantee.
02:51 But we keep doing our things that we have been doing, hopefully we can get across the line.
02:56 How's the atmosphere in the dressing room?
02:58 Good. We've been together a long time now with a few new additions.
03:03 Unfortunately a couple of guys are leaving over the winter, but the sport is still here.
03:10 As one of the more experienced members of the sport, is there anyone to look out for?
03:13 Any of the young players that you think are maybe to take a leap this year?
03:17 The guys that we saw in the 50-0 game last year, Eddie Jack, Turner Pugh here.
03:24 And obviously John Turner, who's been around now a little bit, but has gone away with England and had a successful high four.
03:32 He sees a last year, I think there's definitely one or two to look out for.
03:36 I'm going to go really young, I'd say Eddie Jack is probably the next guy to look out for.
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