In the footsteps of Mr Warne - Jane Cable interviews Dimi

Jane Cable talks with Hampshire captain Dimi Mascarenhas

If there’s one thing I discovered during my conversation Dimi Mascarenhas it’s that although he may take his inspiration from Shane Warne’s captaincy, he certainly won’t be standing in his shadow.

It has been an incredible twelve months for Dimi – a successful benefit year, his England call up, the Twenty20 World Cup, and now – the captaincy of Hampshire. The first three were probably not unexpected, but the fourth was something of a surprise. When I caught up with Dimi during Hampshire’s warm up games he told me he had only been asked to do the job a few weeks before.

“It hasn’t had much time to sink in yet, but it’s going to be a huge challenge I think. It’s a great honour for me that the club to think I’m good enough to be captain, and I’m respected enough among the team and the club to do the job. To follow someone like Warney is never going to be easy. As a captain he’s unbelievable; if he’d been captain of Australia he could have been one of the best ever. Hopefully if I’ve learnt a bit from him and I keep taking that forwards for these boys we’ve got now, we can have a seriously successful season.”

I was interested to know what Dimi learned from Warne’s captaincy. Rather than specifics, it’s more a question of attitude. “The way he goes about his work, the way he’s so passionate about cricket and his will to win. The only reason he plays cricket – yes, he loves it – but he wants to win. And he did anything in his power to help us win. We want to go out there and try to win every game we play. Obviously that never happens throughout the whole season because there’s so many games. That’s a big thing for me that I’ve taken from him; out of a dead game he’ll always be trying to find a way to be competitive.” So that’s one aspect of Hampshire that won’t change under Dimi’s captaincy. Thankfully.

In terms of challenges, Dimi sees the biggest ones as coping with the losses in the team. Not only Warne, but Shaun Udal and James Bruce. “They’re three huge losses to try to deal with” says Dimi “but what it does, is that it opens doors for a lot of other people to come in and assert themselves on this club. A lot of people who are hardly talked about will find themselves in the first team and they’ll have to prove – firstly to themselves – that they’re good enough to be there.”

This is where the warm up games were going to be particularly useful for a new captain. “I think most of the guys are going to get a go at some stage. There’s going to be all sorts of different bowlers because we have so many injuries, including a couple of academy guys playing, which will be good, because I haven’t seen a lot of them.”

One of Rod Bransgrove’s stated objectives for the club this season is to reach the final of the Twenty20 cup. Dimi doesn’t beat around the bush about the fact that improvement is necessary. “We’ve definitely under-performed since the competition began, so everyone’s goal is to assert ourselves on the Twenty20. We’ve been poor in the past and we need to lift our game. We’ve got the side to do it – a good one day squad – so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be good at Twenty20.”

“What we will do is work on a few different plans and hopefully stick to those plans, and that will stand us in good stead.” I asked Dimi if he’d learnt a lot about tactics from playing with England. “It’s no surprise to me that looking around the country, your best batters are still your best batters; they’re still the ones who score all the runs. And that’s what we’ll be looking for. There’s not a whole lot of tactics that go into it from what I’ve seen so far. I mean, obviously other clubs would tell you different, but from what I’ve been involved with, it’s just doing the simple things right.”

So will Dimi’s perspective change from a few weeks honing his skills in the Indian Premier League? “Maybe, yes. That’s what I’ll be hoping for, because I’ll be playing with and against the best players in the world. It’s very exciting. And the crowds over there – I’m told they’re just amazing – so that’s another thing I’m looking forward to.”

As Dimi’s career has moved from Hampshire and towards England, a perception has grown that the shorter form of the game is both his forte and his priority. But a quick glance down his First Class record shows the truth of the matter in that he has scored over 5,000 runs with seven centuries, and taken 364 wickets at an economy rate of just 2.74. He also understands how important the LVCC is to Hampshire and its fans.

“The Championship’s the big one for me. It’s important we start the season well, to get on a good roll. If the team starts winning in one competition, it keeps going. So hopefully we can do that. I keep saying it, but we’ve got a great squad, and there’s no better test than to play the Champions straight up.”

“Everyone captains differently, and like we’ve seen over the years, there’s been great captains of England, great captains of Australia, and all the different countries. Everyone has their own way that they do things, because they want to assert themselves on the game and their team. It’s about performances for me; whether I bat or bowl, I want to win us games, and if I can do that, I’ll be doing a pretty good job – and leading by example.”

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