KEVIN PIETERSEN, the South Africa-born Nottinghamshire batsman, will be unveiled as a Hampshire player today. He will not, though, be able to sign his lucrative three-year contract immediately, because Nottinghamshire, his former county, are claiming that an official approach has not been made.

David Collier, the chief executive of Nottinghamshire and chief executive designate of the ECB, said: “Kent and Surrey gave us 28 days’ notice to approach him, but not Hampshire. This is not just a common courtesy — the regulations were changed last winter.

“The ECB will look into this only if we make a fuss and we did realise Kevin was going to go. He does so with our best wishes. But for him to say that he carried our team last season is to overlook that we won promotion, that others scored centuries and the team functioned extremely well.”

Rod Bransgrove, the Hampshire chairman, said that he had taken advice from the ECB and the Professional Cricketers’ Association. “I was told that Kevin was a free agent from the end of September,” Bransgrove said, adding that the club accepted that Pietersen may become a centrally contracted England player and would be available for all too few county matches.

“We took that risk with John Crawley and it may happen again,” Bransgrove said.

“Another person who is very close to England selection is Chris Tremlett and hence it is important to have a large group of players to call on.”

One of the main reasons Pietersen chose Hampshire before four other counties is because he wants to play under the captaincy of Shane Warne, who regards him as the most exciting young cricketer in England and who has spoken to him on two occasions about coming to the Rose Bowl.

Sussex and Somerset, as well as Kent and Surrey, were interested in signing the player, who qualified for England last month and who has been unsettled at Trent Bridge since the departure of Clive Rice, the Nottinghamshire coach and his mentor. Now 24, he is likely to bat at No 4 for Hampshire, who will pay him less than the £100,000 a year that has been mooted.

“Shane Warne is very excited,” Tim Tremlett, the Hampshire director of cricket, said. “Kevin is a match-winner who backs himself and who will fit in with our guys perfectly. It was a big plus-point for him that Shane will be coming back to us. We knew he had been selected by England to go to Zimbabwe and possibly we shall lose him to international cricket, but exciting prospects don’t come along that often.

We were looking to sign a top batsman and once we knew he was available we were less interested in Alex Loudon, (the Kent batsman who has joined Warwickshire).”

Paul Terry, the Hampshire manager, said: “He has a hunger to succeed and the England selectors have shown how highly they regard him.”