County cricket's movers and shakers (part 2)

Posted by Tony Hutton

Some of you may recall that I did an early list of players changing counties about the middle of last month. Since then the list has increased substantially, with lots of new overseas mercenaries joining counties on short term contracts. Now that John Winn has whetted our appetites with next week's fixtures, it seems appropriate to update the list of changes. There are so many, I will do half the counties today and the rest sometime next week.

Derbyshire have been very busy in the overseas market signing New Zealand's batsman Martin Guptill until early June, when he will be replaced by Sri Lanka's Dilshan. In addition they have signed Australian bowler Nathan Rimmington for T20. Tim Groenewald, the opening bowler, has left for Somerset and Wayne White, not to be confused with Wainwright, has joined from Lancashire. Shiv Thakor has joined from Leicester and will hopefully develope his early promise as an all rounder.

Durham have no new signings and will continue with Australian John Hastings as their very useful overseas player. Gareth Breese has retired.

Essex will continue with New Zealander Jesse Ryder as their overseas player, with Australian fast bowler Shaun Tait joining for T20. They have lost Ben Foakes to Surrey and Tymal Mills to Sussex. Darren Gough's son Liam has joined the staff from MCC Young Cricketers.

Glamorgan have appointed existing overseas player Jacques Rudolph as captain in all forms of the game and have recruited batsman James Kettleborough (no relation to the umpire) from Northants. Jim Allenby has left to join Somerset.

Gloucester will suffer from the loss of the Gidman brothers to Notts and Worcester respectively, but Geraint Jones from Kent takes over as captain. Michael Klinger, the Australian batsman, will return in June. The ex-Yorkshire pair of Richard Dawson and Ian Harvey take over as coach and assistant coach.

Hampshire have recruited Australian fast bowler Jason Bird for the first three months of the season and Yasar Arafat from Sussex for one day cricket. Matt Coles has returned to his native county of Kent and David Balcombe has joined Surrey.

Lancashire have added to their fast bowling strength by signing Australian Peter Siddle until July. They have also added to the batting with Alviro Peterson from Somerset.

Leicester seem to have undergone an Australian takeover. Andrew McDonald has taken over as coach and Mark Cosgrove as captain. Another Australian, bowler Clint Mackay will join at the end of April and New Zealander Grant Elliott will be worth watching in the T20 competition.

More news next week.