Tagg bats away criticism about Kolpak players

Mark Tagg, the Northamptonshire chief executive, has defended his use of Kolpak players after criticism of his county and Leicestershire, who between them picked 13 players born outside the UK for their LV County Championship match last week.

Each team selected five South Africans, with Leicestershire adding a West Indian and Northamptonshire choosing Riki Wessels, an Australian, and Niall O'Brien, of Ireland, but Tagg said that the multitude of African Kolpaks was caused by the threat of an ECB ban on Andrew Hall and Johan van der Wath for playing in the Indian Cricket League.

“We were in a very difficult situation because of the uncertainty over the availability of Hall and Van der Wath and that is why we signed Johann Louw as emergency cover,” Tagg said. “When the two won their appeal, we ended up with two more Kolpak players than we expected. Our members want to see us win and by signing top-class South Africans like Lance Klusener and Nicky Boje we can compete with anybody.”

Klusener is injured for today's match away to Glamorgan. Critics of Tagg's policy will be delighted that he has been replaced by David Wigley, an Englishman.

Yorkshire wait is over

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan will finally make his debut for Yorkshire in their LV County Championship match against Surrey at the Brit Oval starting today. Having signed in September, Naved suffered a career-threatening shoulder injury, then played in the unauthorised Indian Cricket League, which threw his participation with Yorkshire into doubt. Naved’s debut will be especially timely, with Matthew Hoggard and Darren Gough injured.

Thorpe's return

Graham Thorpe and Martin Bicknell, two of Surrey's favourite sons, will be back in action at the Brit Oval on June 8 for a Twenty20 match to mark the partnership between the Barbados Tourist Authority and the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA). Chris Lewis, Devon Malcolm and Phil DeFreitas will play for the PCA, but they may be nervous. Barbados's opening pair are Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes.