Durham eye Pollock

9:11am Saturday 19th April 2008

AS DURHAM begin their defence of the Friends Provident Trophy at home to Yorkshire tomorrow, their search for more silverware has seen them make contact with Shaun Pollock.

The former South Africa captain has retired from international cricket and is currently involved in the Indian Premier League.

But there remains an outside chance that he will join Durham later in the season as a Kolpak signing, possibly just for the domestic Twenty20 Cup.

Pollock's fellow South African, Neil McKenzie, is due to arrive with his family for a seven-week stint today and will be in the team for tomorrow's noon start.

"I've played with and against him quite a lot, and he's a very good signing," said skipper Dale Benkenstein. "It's great that he has had the opportunity to play Test cricket again recently.

"He deserved to play a lot earlier.

South Africa are strong in the middle, so he's had the chance to show how good he is opening the batting. But he prefers the middle order and that's where we will bat him."

With the FPT split into four groups of five this year, Durham play Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Scotland home and away.

Quarter-finals have been introduced and will be played on Wednesday, June 4 with the semifinals on July 4 and 5 and the final on Saturday, August 16.

"The trophy is in our cabinet and we have very fond memories of Lord's," said Benkenstein, who will be without three of the team from last year's final in Paul Collingwood, Ottis Gibson and Chanderpaul.

The captain added: "It's always great to have your international players available, but Paul has had a busy schedule, he's got a family and a busy summer ahead.

"He's available for our second championship match at Old Trafford starting on May 7, which is the day after I fly back to South Africa for the birth of my third child. It will be a Ceasarean birth on the ninth, so the only other game I'll miss will be the FPT match in Scotland."

Durham have named a squad of 13, including five seamers, and Benkenstein has no worries about either Liam Plunkett, who has had a slight side strain, or Steve Harmison.

In the match against Durham University, the third day of which was washed out yesterday, most of Harmison's deliveries were allowed to pass by.

But Benkenstein said: "Against top batsmen he would have been bowling in really good areas, but against students you probably have to try to hit the stumps. Better batsmen tend to put the straight balls away.

"In his last spell he had good rhythm. He's confident and determined and we'd like to help him get his England place back.

"We will probably have to leave one of the seamers out. If it's a shortened match there might be a case for leaving out our spinner, although Gareth Breese has been a huge part of the side and obviously contributes with the bat.

"We have certainly got to know the gym well in the last few days, when we could have done with a bit more cricket."

The gates will open at 10am and prospects of play can be accessed by calling 0844 499 4466. That's also the number to ring today to order tickets in advance at £10 rather than the £15 (£6 for juniors) which will be charged on the gate.

Durham (from): Phil Mustard, Michael Di Venuto, Kyle Coetzer, Neil McKenzie, Dale Benkenstein (capt), Ben Harmison, Gordon Muchall, Gareth Breese, Liam Plunkett, Graham Onions, Neil Killeen, Stephen Harmison, Mark Davies ■ Mike Gatting has selected Graham Onions as one of his Friends Provident Trophy Ones to Watch.

In his role as ECB Managing Director of Cricket Partnerships, Gatting has opted for the Durham seamer in the North region, Northants batsman David Sales for the Midlands, 6ft 8in Middlesex seamer Steven Finn for the South-East, and Gloucestershire allrounder Alex Gidman for the South West.

The Ones to Watch will be closely followed throughout the competition on ECBtv as well as featuring on ecb.co.uk and YouTube

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