{"id":343087,"date":"2025-12-12T12:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T12:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/343087\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T12:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T12:08:07","slug":"hampshire-announce-signings-of-michael-neser-and-jake-lehmann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/343087\/","title":{"rendered":"Hampshire announce signings of Michael Neser and Jake Lehmann"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espncricinfo.com\/team\/hampshire-1051\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hampshire <\/a>have announced the signings of Australians <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espncricinfo.com\/cricketers\/michael-neser-376169\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Neser<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espncricinfo.com\/cricketers\/jake-lehmann-437448\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Lehmann<\/a>. Neser, who claimed his maiden Test five-for against England at the Gabba last week, will join for the first six rounds of the County Championship in April-May, while Lehmann has agreed a two-year contract as a locally registered player using his UK passport.<\/p>\n<p>Neser had a previous stint with Hampshire in 2024, playing seven games in the Blast alongside one Championship appearance. He has also enjoyed success with Glamorgan, taking 80 first-class wickets at 23.00, as well as recording his highest score of 176 not out.<\/p>\n<p>Lehmann, 33, the son of former Australia batter and coach, Darren, has never been capped but is a steady performer for South Australia in the Sheffield Shield. He was the competition&#8217;s third-highest run-scorer as South Australia won the 2024-25 Shield, with 750 at 44.11, and is currently leading the way for his state in the current season down under.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<\/p>\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<p>Hampshire will be his third county, having played for Yorkshire (in 2016) and Lancashire (2019).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m excited to join Hampshire on a two-year deal, it&#8217;s great to return to county cricket,&#8221; Lehmann said. &#8220;Hampshire has a fantastic history of Australian players and to follow in the footsteps of Shane Warne, Matthew Hayden and the like is really special.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I look forward to joining up with the team at Utilita Bowl and hopefully contributing to the trophy cabinet.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Although Lehmann is likely to have to give up his status as a domestic player in Australia to qualify as a local in county cricket, states are allowed to play one overseas player in a Shield XI.<\/p>\n<p>Hampshire narrowly avoided relegation on the final day of the 2025 County Championship, thanks to Durham&#8217;s defeat to Yorkshire. They will go into the new season with Russell Domingo as head coach, with the South African taking over from long-serving Adi Birrell.<\/p>\n<p>Giles White, Hampshire&#8217;s director of cricket, said: &#8220;In Michael Neser and Jake Lehmann, we have two players who have the ability to make a significant impact. &#8220;Michael brings valuable runs alongside his quality with the ball &#8211; he will partner Kyle Abbott as one of our overseas players.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Jake is in outstanding form and is the leading run scorer in Shield cricket over the past 18 months. With a British passport, he is eligible to play as a locally qualified player, allowing flex in strengthening the squad.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Both players possess a great attitude and bring quality and experience; it&#8217;s a big boost as we look to finalise our plans ahead of 2026.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hampshire have announced the signings of Australians Michael Neser and Jake Lehmann. Neser, who claimed his maiden Test&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-343087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}