DURHAM have re-signed Shoaib Akhtar, the world's only 100mph bowler, for next season.

After the Pakistani's success in the second half of last season his agent seemed likely to price him beyond Durham's reach for 2004, but after almost three months of negotiations they have reached agreement.

In what could be the last season of counties agreeing to have two overseas players, Shoaib will team up with South African batsman Herschelle Gibbs.

Durham lined up Gibbs last July. He is the world's tenth best batsman according to the latest PriceWaterhouse Cooper rankings, while Shoaib is fourth among the bowlers.

Durham may have turned elsewhere - they were looking at Queensland batsman Lee Carseldine - had they been able to strengthen the bowling by signing Ryan Sidebottom

But several counties were after the former Yorkshire left-armer and he opted for Nottinghamshire.

Durham have also spoken to another player released by Yorkshire, Gavin Hamilton, but after being unable to bowl straight for the last two seasons he would represent a big gamble and they were left with little option but to sign an overseas bowler.

Shoaib was keen to return and is expected to be available for most of the season. The only question mark is over whether Pakistan will hold a training camp prior to the ICC Trophy in this country in September.

Starting with Durham in early July this year, Shoaib clearly paced himself. But his final statistics were impressive as he had 34 championship wickets at 17.05 and 17 in the National League at 13.17. The next highest championship wicket-taker among Durham's seamers was Neil Killeen with 23 at 36.86.

Shoaib arrived as a replacement for Dewald Pretorius, who made a good impression before being summoned to join the South Africa squad.

Durham skipper Jon Lewis said: "Shoaib is one of the world's greatest bowlers and we are delighted he is coming back.

"We are expecting great performances from both our overseas men, and they will also play an important part in the development of our young players."

Chairman Bob Jackson added: "The prospect of Shoaib and Steve Harmison pairing up with the new ball is certainly mouth-watering. I expect opening batsmen around the country will not fancy the Durham fixture next year."

How much Durham see of Harmison depends on his England commitments. His central contract was not renewed at the end of last season, and there have been reports that the England hierarchy are still not fully convinced about his commitment.

The same was said of Andrew Flintoff, however, when he was struggling with injury a year ago, and reports from Durham indicate that Harmison is working hard to get over his back problem. He is hoping to be selected for the tour to the West Indies in the spring, which overlaps the start of the county season by several weeks.

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