Tino Best signs for Hampshire

Lock up your daughters, Hampshire have signed Tino Best on a short-term deal to replace Fidel Edwards. 

If memory serves, Tino trained with the team in Barbados on the pre-season tour, but never expected him to be given a contract. Unfortunately, it shows just how bad Hampshire's current injury woes are. To be honest, I kind of wished they heeded my previous suggestion of plucking players out of stands. I am not sure Tino has much left at this point.

While I know you said that Best trained with Hampshire, what other reason would they have offered him a contract apart from familiarity though? I'm not sure the Hampshire fans are going to be over the moon by this, but the team must have seen something in him that they liked? I'm just not 100% sure what that is.

Watch the windows

Lock up your daughters and girlfriends.

according to Tino.

Tino get a lot ah pum pum!  the benefits of hanging out with the good and famous eh! > > >
he got no wikets himself but he got pum pum.  impse shud be ashamed bragging about dat. 

a cricketer writes books about cricket not pum pum.  but that skunt have no cricket to write about being the most adject failure of a west indian fast bowler, next to Milton Small
> > > >

Even if he was good enough, made a big contribution to cricket he still should not boast about these things but hey we are talking about it and it may boost sales for him. Very indiscreet.

Silly boy really.

Tino is a loose cannon

Because Hampshire have been decimated with injuries to their seam bowlers. They are down to the bare bones. Edwards, Topley, Berg, Stephenson and Wood are all out injured. The only fit seamers in their first XI squad are Ryan McLaren and James Tomlinson. Their two best bowlers in the second XI - Mason Crane and Brad Taylor - are both young spinners. What they liked about Tino is that a) he is a seamer b) he is fit and c) he was eligible to sign for them.

Tino did play in the second XI yesterday for Hampshire against Somerset. He got off to a great start, picking up a wicket with his first delivery, but then toiled away after that with little to show for his efforts, finishing with figures of 1-37 from his 14 overs of work.

As an aside, as a Hampshire fan, it saddens me that the two biggest talking points so far this season have not been the gritty draws against Yorkshire and Warwickshire, but the injury to Fidel and the signing of cricket's off-field equivalent of Wilt Chamberlain. If only Tino had Wilt's on-field abilities

So if you're fit, a seamer and eligible, then you'll get a game at Hampshire? I know you said things were bad with injuries, but isn't that casting the bet a bit too far and wide?

What's the reason for so many injuries aswell, is it just bad luck or can it be attributed to something at the club that can be changed?

What other fast bowlers that are available would you suggest signing? I'd love to hear any suggestions.

Unfortunately, fast bowlers get injured a lot. It's the nature of the job. Bowling puts incredible stress and strain on your knees, back, ankles and abdominal muscles. The current Australian team is a perfect example of this - Starc, Hastings, Harris, Cummins, Siddle, Pattinson, Bird, Behrendorff and Coulter-Nile are all injured or have been injured over the last 12-months.