DIRECTOR of cricket Matthew Maynard is looking for his Glamorgan side to fire a warning shot to their County Champion-ship rivals when the season gets under way tomorrow morning.

Much-fancied Sussex head to Cardiff for the curtain-raiser but the home side will be keen to pick up their four-day form of 2009 when they were unlucky to miss out on promotion to Division One after a strange year of near-misses.

They drew 12 out of 16 games but Maynard’s side were often close to victory only to be foiled by the weather or last-wicket stands.

A killer touch is needed and if they can display that tomorrow then the rest of the Division Two counties will sit up and take note.

Sussex are tipped to bounce straight back up to the top flight after suffering relegation last year and would be a notable scalp given the likes of Murray Goodwin, Luke Wright, Mike Yardy and Monty Panesar in their line-up.

But Glamorgan are not a side to be taken lightly and Maynard is looking for a strong start to the campaign.

“We outperformed most sides in the championship last season but just couldn’t get over the finishing line,” he said.

“A positive result against Sussex would make a big statement and then we head to Lord’s to play Middlesex and then to Derbyshire. The first three games will be crucial and will show which direction we are going in.

“I’d like to think Glamorgan are one of the sides to beat this year. The firepower is a little concern but we have the best spin partnership in the country.

“If we are in the hunt halfway through the season with the wickets drying out and turning from day two then we have match-winners in our side.

“If our lads can stay fit we will have a chance in the championship without a shadow of a doubt.

“It won’t just be about one-day cricket for us this year, we would love to get promotion and get back into Division One.

“We gained a lot of respect from other sides last season, but now we have to push on from that.”

The pace department is one area that troubles Glam and they will be without seam David Harrison tomorrow after he injured his left quad in the friendly at Somerset on Monday.

Garnett Kruger has gone from last year’s squad meaning there is plenty of expectation on the young shoulders of James Harris and Adam Shantry, as well as Harrison.

However, Maynard is also looking for his batters, who had a 2009 to remember, to pile up even more runs.

“The only thing we are lacking is perhaps a bit of pace,” said Maynard. “We are missing a 90 miles per hour bowler in the championship, though we will have Shaun Tait for the Twenty20.

“But we need to improve on our batting as well, I know we had our biggest amount of batting bonus points and centuries for a number of years but there is still plenty of room for improvement.

We had a lot of what I would call baby centuries – we want to make sure our batters go on to make big hundreds because they really hurt opponents.”