DURHAM have signed Victoria batsman Brad Hodge as a replacement for Martin Love for the rest of the season.

As forecast in Northern Echo Sport on Monday, Durham had reached the point where they had to decide whether it was worth waiting any longer for Love to recover from his finger injury.

Hodge was joint player of the year in Australia's domestic competition last season and comes highly recommended by former Durham captain David Boon.

He will arrive on Tuesday and could go straight into the championship match against Nottinghamshire starting at the Riverside the following day.

Love had to have the little finger of his right hand pinned when it was badly broken as he attempted to take a slip catch in the home match against Worcestershire five weeks ago.

He is due to see a specialist again on Tuesday, but Durham chairman Bill Midgley said: "It's disappointing, but we have talked to Martin about it and he knows where we are coming from.

"We don't know how long it's going to take for him to recover and we reached the stage where we could not go on with this uncertainty.

"We are keen to hang on to our division one status in the one-day league and have a lot of important one-day games coming up. Having someone of Brad Hodge's quality coming in alongside Paul Collingwood could make the difference.

"We have been trawling the Australian market to find a suitable replacement who is available for the rest of the season. We have had to work hard to overcome work permit problems, but Brad will be available on Wednesday if the captain and coach want to pitch him straight in."

Love was top of the first-class batting averages prior to the games starting yesterday, with his 251 against Middlesex at Lord's helping him to a total of 576 runs at 82.28.

Collingwood will be back in the Durham side for the first time since May 27 when they face Leicestershire in the Norwich Union National League at the Riverside tomorrow.

The all-rounder was ruled out for three weeks by a knee injury before joining the England squad for the NatWest Series.

He rejoined his Durham colleagues this week and will be keen to improve on a top score of 11 in his two National League outings to date.

Only Gary Pratt, with 61 against Yorkshire, has made a half-century as Durham have lost six of their seven Norwich Union games.

Danny Law and Ian Hunter are back in contention after being mysteriously left out of the squad for the championship win against Derbyshire at Darlington.

Michael Gough pressed his claim with a century for the second team this week, only to suffer a groin injury, while Nicky Hatch is ruled out by an Achilles injury.

"People have shown a good attitude in the second team this week and I have been pleased with their performances," said coach Martyn Moxon.

"Not being able to practise as much as we wanted has left a couple of question marks over selection, so we will practise again on Sunday morning."

With the ladies' one-day international series taking over the Riverside, Durham practised at Darlington on Thursday and would have done so again yesterday had it not rained.

Leicestershire, who are sixth in the division one table, beat Durham by 32 runs when the sides met at Grace Road in the Benson & Hedges Cup in May, with Trevor Ward and Australian Michael Bevan both scoring centuries.

* Former Durham player Sherwin Campbell is in the Lashings World X1 to play Durham at Chester-le-Street on August 7.

His West Indies teammate Brian Lara is unavailable, despite announcing before the season began that he was negotiating to play at the Riverside this summer.

Opening batsman Campbell, Durham's overseas player in 1996, will be joined by Pakistani paceman Shoaib Akhtar, and two former West Indies greats in Richie Richardson and Viv Richards.

Tickets, limited to 5,000, are available via the ticket hotline on 0191 387 1717. They cost £10 for adults and £5 for juniors (U18). Play starts at 1pm and finishes at 7.10.

Lashings: Stuart Williams (West Indies), Sherwin Campbell (West Indies), Grant Flower (Zimbabwe), Richie Richardson (West Indies), Jimmy Adams (West Indies), Chris Harris (New Zealand), Viv Richards (West Indies), Junior Murray (West Indies), Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan), Mohammed Akram (Pakistan), Stuart Carlilse (Zimbabwe).

* Durham unveil a display of club memorabilia in the Riverside Suite before tomorrow's Norwich Union League game against Leicestershire. Chairman Bill Midgley and director Ian Mills will open the display, courtesy of a legacy left by Ian's late wife, Mary.

Read more about Durham here.