||Desk Report||
South Africa's Aiden Markram will join Hampshire as their overseas player for the start of the County Championship season, replacing Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne, confirms the club. 

Hampshire director of cricket Giles White told to the media,"He's [Aiden Markram] a player we've looked at over the past couple of years. He's done particularly well at the start of his international career and forged his way into their white-ball side recently.

We're really pleased to have secured Aiden and we look forward to welcoming him as soon as possible."

The Lankan opener Karunaratne is in the frame to captain his country at the World Cup. Markram, himself could feature for South Africa at the World Cup from late May, had a brief spell at Durham last season.

However, The 24-year-old Proteas is expected to be available for Hampshire's opening match against Essex on 5 April until the end of the group stages of the One-Day Cup should he be selected for the World Cup. 

Meanwhile, Markram has played 17 Tests and 18 ODIs for South Africa since his international debut 18 months ago. Markram became the first player in South Africa’s history to score two hundreds in his first three Tests and has scored two more in his aggregate of 1,358 runs at 43.80.