County Cricket 2010

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Glamorgan have confirmed Shaun Tait, the Australian paceman, as their second overseas player for next season's Twenty20 Cup, joining fellow Aussie Mark Cosgrove at Cardiff.

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Shahid Afridi, the Pakistan allrounder, has been signed by Hampshire to play in the domestic Twenty20 Cup this summer. He follows Ajantha Mendis, the Sri Lankan spinner, to the county. "I am looking forward to playing for Hampshire and looking forward to a successful Twenty20 campaign," said Afridi.

Hampshire have also been in discussions to sign Shane Warne, their former captain, for the Twenty20 tournament, although these have yet to come to fruition. In an effort to raise the profile of England's Twenty20 Cup competition, counties will be able to include four overseas players in their squads next season but only two will be allowed in each game. Adam Gilchrist and Sachin Tendulkar have been linked to Middlesex, and Cameron White will be rejoining his old county Somerset.

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Cameron White, the Australian allrounder, will rejoin his old county Somerset for the 2010 Twenty20 Cup.

White was last at Taunton in 2006 and was Somerset's leading run-scorer in the Championship, scoring 1190 runs at 59.50 in Division Two. Remarkably his strike-rate was 81.45 through the season and it is his big-hitting ability that Somerset will want for the Twenty20 Cup.

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Having already secured the services of Cameron White for the 2010 Twenty20 Cup, Somerset have now snapped up Kieron Pollard, the West Indian batsman who starred for Trinidad & Tobago in the Champions League.

Pollard is something of a Twenty20 nomad, having played for South Australia as well and is expected to be a big attraction at the IPL auction after he made 146 runs in five innings during Trinidad & Tobago's excellent campaign in Champions League in October 2009. Having lost to the Caribbean side in the event, Somerset are thrilled to have bagged as dangerous a player as Pollard for the English Twenty20 season.

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Ashwell Prince has signed for Lancashire as the county's interim overseas player for 2010. He will be at Old Trafford until the arrival of Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lanka captain, following Sangakkara's international commitments.

Prince, 32, played for Lancashire at the beginning of last season when he covered for VVS Laxman and had an impressive run, averaging 52.60 from six first-class matches.

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Sachin Tendulkar has opted not to join Middlesex for this summer's domestic Twenty20 Cup, telling the county that the additional workload would place too much pressure on an already busy international schedule. It had been hoped that he would join Adam Gilchrist, who has already signed a contract with Middlesex, for the 2010 edition of the competition.

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Northamptonshire have secured Virender Sehwag to head their Twenty20 challenge during the coming season. It's a major coup for the county who were beaten in the semi-finals in last year's competition

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Stuart Clark will no longer be coming to Kent as their overseas player for the first half of the 2010 season. Clark, 34, has recently returned to Australian domestic cricket after missing nearly three months with a back injury, and the county decided against taking a chance on his fitness.

The county has released a statement indicating that Clark "is not where the club wants him to be fitness-wise so the decision has been reached that it is not worth the risk, on either part, in proceeding with the contract."

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Elton Chigumbura, the Zimbabwean allrounder, has been signed as Northamptonshire's overseas player, and is expected to be available for the entirety of the upcoming season.

[Swamp Donkey]

Its OK Brod Im listening mate

[CoverKing]

Interesting to read about Clark and his contract not being completed....Bit of a setback for Clark to get a Ashes gig in Australia later in the year. That is definitely the end of him IMO

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Northamptonshire have received a No Objection Certificate for Virender Sehwag from the BCCI, but his arrival for the Twenty20 in June is still dependent on whether he is selected for India's one-day commitments in Zimbabwe.

There is a thought that India will send a second-string side to contest the triangular series at the end of May while the trip also includes two Twenty20 internationals against Zimbabwe. The English Twenty20 tournament starts on June 1.

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The traditional curtain-raiser to the English domestic season begins on Monday as county champions Durham play MCC. But while the fixture conjures up genteel images of flannelled gentlemen opening the season under heavy April skies at HQ, the details of the match represent a significant break from convention. The game is to be played well over 3,000 miles away from Lord's, at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, under floodlights, and with a pink ball.

Aussie - Michael DiVenuto will again line up for Durham

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Durham pair Michael Di Venuto and Kyle Coetzer both scored centuries as bat dominated pink ball on an experimental first day of the season-opening fixture against MCC. The traditional county curtain-raiser has a new look this year, with the game transplanted from Lord's to Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Zayed Stadium, while pink Kookaburra's and floodlights are also in use.

Those developments are part of a wider plan to usher in the era of day/night Test cricket, an agenda which is unlikely to have been either derailed or dramatically advanced by events on day one of this high-profile trial. Di Venuto hit a sprightly 131 and Coetzer, who batted all day, a more stately 123 not out as the champions made mostly serene progress to 329 for 3 after winning the toss.

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Somerset have signed Australian paceman Damien Wright to replace Murali Kartik for the first month of the season while Kartick is involved with the Indian Premier League.

Wright, 34, has had county experience with Northamptonshire and Glamorgan, and also played for Scotland in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy in 2002. He's played state cricket in Australia for both Tasmania and Victoria, where he's had good success this winter. In total Wright has had 103 first-class outings, collecting 335 wickets at an average of 28.72 and also taken 122 one-day wickets at 29.51 runs. He also has a useful first-class record with the bat, making 3,264 runs at an average of 24.35.

[brod]

Durham pair Michael Di Venuto and Kyle Coetzer both scored centuries as bat dominated pink ball on an experimental first day of the season-opening fixture against MCC. The traditional county curtain-raiser has a new look this year, with the game transplanted from Lord's to Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Zayed Stadium, while pink Kookaburra's and floodlights are also in use.

Those developments are part of a wider plan to usher in the era of day/night Test cricket, an agenda which is unlikely to have been either derailed or dramatically advanced by events on day one of this high-profile trial. Di Venuto hit a sprightly 131 and Coetzer, who batted all day, a more stately 123 not out as the champions made mostly serene progress to 329 for 3 after winning the toss.

DiVenuto didnt get a bit in the second innings as Durham went on to win by 311 runs

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Durham have re-signed South African limited-overs allrounder Albie Morkel for this season's Twenty20 Cup and are looking to land Ross Taylor, the gifted New Zealand batsman, for the tournament as well.

Morkel is currently at the IPL with Chennai Super Kings and reach helped Durham reach the semi-finals of the Twenty20 Cup in 2008. His international form has declined of late, having made just 77 runs in eight matches over the last year and Durham expect him to be free of South Africa commitments for the duration of the tournament.

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Essex have become the latest victim of the BCCI's decision to revoke 'No Objection Certificates' for their contracted players to play in the English Twenty20 Cup with Yusuf Pathan being ruled out.

Pathan, a destructive batsman and offspin bowler, had been signed by Essex six weeks ago under agreement that he would be available. Yet, days after Northamptonshire announced that Virender Sehwag's NOC had also been revoked, Essex were told by the BCCI that Pathan would not be made available.

David East, the Essex chief executive, was disappointed and puzzled by the decision. "Six weeks ago we completed the signing. We made the decision not to make this public until we had received the NOC from the BCCI. We made a formal request for Yusuf's release to the BCCI and received verbal confirmation from the player that this would be granted by them," he said.

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David Warner, the Australian batsman, will join Adam Gilchrist at Middlesex for this season's Twenty20 Cup. His signing gives the Middlesex line-up a glamorous shine with Warner and Gilchrist being followed by fellow IPL players Owais Shah and Eoin Morgan. No other county can boast such glut of stars and the MCC hope they will attract big crowds to Lord's for this summer's competition.

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Surrey have signed Andrew Symonds for this season's Twenty20 Cup.