Dawson on 'refreshing' Hants head coach Domingo

Hampshire all-rounder Liam Dawson says new head coach Russell Domingo has been "brilliant" since his arrival at the Utilita Bowl.

The 51-year-old South African coach replaced Adi Birrell who left the county at the end of last season.

Domingo coaches the DP World Lions men's team and was previously head coach of South Africa for five years from 2012.

With Hampshire now days away from starting their County Championship campaign, Dawson has already been impressed.

"He's been brilliant so far, he's a very successful coach and he's been around international cricket for a long time," Dawson told BBC Sport.

"I think it's quite refreshing to hear him speak around four-day cricket. He wants the young players to really take the game on and go out there with no fear. That's something we haven't done well enough in the last two or three years.

"Russ has come in and he's made it very clear to the young players to go and express yourself and have fun in four-day cricket."

Hampshire narrowly avoided relegation on the final day of last season after Durham fell apart at Yorkshire and were eventually relegated, bowled all out for 85 in their second innings on the day.

As the season came to a close, Birrell's side were handed a points deduction for a substandard pitch that thrust them into the relegation mix.

But after Hampshire managed to achieve survival by the skin of their teeth, Dawson was keen to stress a situation like this should not be repeated in the coming season.

"If we're honest as a group, we didn't play good cricket long enough over a period of time in the summer and that's the situation we've found ourselves in," he added.

"So certainly no excuse for the points of deduction here, we need to play better cricket throughout the year not to be in that position in the first place.

"We've got to come up with a formula here to win games of cricket because pitches here have notoriously gone a bit dead over the last two or three years. There's been a lot of draws here so hopefully we can find a pitch that suits our home conditions and get some more wins here."

Last season was a busy one for Dawson with England call-ups even he admitted to not expecting.

The 36-year-old left-arm spinner played in all eight of their T20 World Cup matches over winter, taking 10 wickets.

Brendon McCullum's side made it all the way to the semi-final of the competition before losing to host nation India by seven runs.

This was Dawson's first ever World Cup for England - he was an unused player in the 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2022 squads.

"It was amazing to be in India and Sri Lanka for the World Cup. I loved every minute of it," he said.

"I was pretty solid throughout the whole competition, obviously a bit disappointed I didn't contribute more in the semi-final.

"We played well throughout the tournament but India were a quality side and we weren't able to get over the line.

"I'm very proud to have played the amount I have done for England over the last year but that's all gone now and we have another season to look forward to where hopefully I can perform again."

Hampshire get their County Championship season under way on Friday when they face Essex at the Utilita Bowl.