Changes Predicted as Hampshire Plunge into Division Two

And understandably so.

The season has finished, but the recriminations for a summer of red-ball woe will continue long into the winter.

The table doesn't lie.

Hampshire finished the season on 98 points.

Their batting points tally? Just four.

You don't have to be Hercule Poirot to work out where Hampshire's issues lie.

Were it not for the runs of Jake Lehmann and captain Ben Brown this season, then things could have been even worse.

The Hawk understands that there could be a shake up of the coaching set-up.

But Hampshire are acutely aware of the issues facing them.

As Lancashire and countless others have shown, bouncing back from relegation to Division Two is no easy task.

Lancashire were relegated in September 2024.

Last season they finished fifth.

This season, they won just two matches and finished seventh.

Many of the voices on social media - and they have been particularly loud in recent weeks - have expressed fears that Hampshire's fortunes could follow a similar direction of travel.

One senior figure at the club likened the situation now to the one in 2011, when Hampshire finished bottom of Division One with a young side containing the likes of James Vince, Liam Dawson, and Chris Wood.

The only difference then was that Dawson averaged 36 with the bat and Vince 28, with both scoring over 1,600 runs between them.

Michael Carberry averaged 56 – albeit that figure was skewed by an unbeaten 300 not out against Yorkshire at the then Rose Bowl in early August.

Neil McKenzie also hit three centuries in a season that saw him score 1,120 runs.

The main issue for Hampshire then was taking wickets. Where was Kyle Abbott when you needed him?

"There were a lot of similarities," says James Tomlinson, who played in that side and is now player development manager at the county. "We had stayed up with five minutes of the previous season remaining when Jimmy (Adams) took a catch off me on the final evening against Kent at Canterbury.

"That was probably my most enjoyable moment in cricket. It was incredible.

"It was real backs-to-the-wall stuff, but we knew exactly where we were as a side because so many players were coming to the end of their careers."

When Hampshire had to pull off something similarly spectacular 12 months later, it proved beyond them.

Just as staying up after being saved by a miraculous collapse by Durham on the final day of last season has proved beyond Ben Brown's Hampshire team.

The county didn't strengthen after that last-ditch salvation in 2010.

And bringing in Lehmann this season ultimately proved insufficient this time around.

Speak to some senior figures at Hampshire and there's a lament that this didn't happen 12 months ago, providing Hampshire's young batters with a platform to regain their confidence in the second tier after relentless hammerings and collapses in Division One in 2025.

There are still those who will tell you that Hampshire are one of the few sides that don't enjoy playing on their home turf, which is unsurprising given they have gone a full season without winning at the Utilita Bowl in the County Championship.

Others have voiced off-the-record fears that the batting failures of the past two seasons could leave a psychological and technical scar on some members of that top order.

How Hampshire avoid that happening is something that the powers that be will have to give serious consideration to over the winter months.

For now, the focus will be on bringing in an overseas player who can play as much red-ball cricket as possible in 2026.

As reported by The Hawk last week, the county's preference is for an international all-rounder, with talks advancing with a player who fits that bill.

There is talk of an increased player budget, with GMR, the county's Indian owners, set to loosen the purse strings in the close season.

On the subject of the ownership, there have been few, if any, public utterances from them since the takeover.

Hampshire's members and supporters would doubtless be encouraged to hear from them directly at some point in the close season.

Domingo, meanwhile, is on his way back to South Africa to look after the Lions – a team that can call on the cream of the country's domestic talent.

There's a nagging suspicion that Domingo wasn't aware of the full scope of the rebuild he was being asked to oversee in his Northern Hemisphere post this summer.

He is now.

There's no suggestion that he won't return next year.

But whatever happens, he won't forget his first six months in England for a long, long time.