CHAMPIONS Durham have decided not to have an official overseas player next season until Shivnarine Chanderpaul becomes available at the start of July.

Bringing in players on a short-term basis has rarely worked for Durham, with Australian paceman Shaun Tait top of the list of flops.

New Zealander Scott Styris was a disappointment two years ago, and last season South African Neil McKenzie performed far better in the subsequent Test series than he did in the early games for Durham.

Coach Geoff Cook said: “The Twenty20 Cup lends itself to a star attraction coming in and we had reasonable success last year with Albie Morkel and Shaun Pollock. So we might look at getting a big name in then, but it has become incredibly difficult to pin anyone down for any length of time.

“We thought about signing a young Australian opening batsman called Phil Hughes, but it didn’t work out and in any case he was then selected for the tour of South Africa.

“Dale Benkenstein and Michael Di Venuto will be here for the start of the season, and we want to create opportunities in early season for younger players to stake a claim.

“We hope individuals can start to show the consistency which reflects the confidence which the team’s success has given them.”

Benkenstein, who has handed over the captaincy to Will Smith, still has three years on his contract and could devote all his time to Durham as the Indian Cricket League is struggling.

This winter’s second instalment will not go ahead next month.

The title-winning captain will join Durham on March 26 on a ten-day trip to an academy near Pretoria, where they carried out their pre-season preparations last year.

They will return two days before appearing at Lord’s in the annual Champions v MCC match, starting on April 9, and Cook said: “It will be terrific to be involved in that. We should have all our players apart from those with England.”

Mark Davies and Liam Plunkett will just be back from a six-week trip to New Zealand with the England development squad.

After the frustration of having their trip to India reduced to a week by the Mumbai bombings, they left yesterday.

Cook said: “It’s a fairly hectic schedule and they come back here about two days before our season starts. The timing seems strange when there’s so much talk about rest and recuperation.

“Being in and out of the England team didn’t help Liam’s confidence and they tried to change his action quite substantially.

“He has had time to get away from competitive touring and to re-think his goals. There have been some really promising signs over the winter.”

After impressing with England A the previous winter, Graham Onions was not selected for the development squad, but took up an invitation to play for a Country Districts team in Sydney from mid-January.

Cook added: “It will be good for him to go off and do things independently rather than come under the all-consuming ECB banner.”