THE world's fastest bowler is heading for Chester-le-Street to play for Durham for the rest of the season.

They have agreed terms with Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar, who became the first man to crack the 100mph barrier during last winter's World Cup.

The man known as the Rawalpindi Express sent down a delivery at England's Nick Knight in Cape Town which was timed at 100.2mph.

Akhtar, 27, completed his duties with Pakistan in yesterday's third NatWest Challenge match at Lord's after missing the first of the three games because he was completing a two-match ban for ball tampering.

That was just the latest controversial incident in a career dogged by injury and also threatened by accusations of throwing.

Akhtar is expected to team up with Durham later this week. He could play in the four-day match against India A starting at Riverside on Friday, but is more likely to wait for the championship match at Worcester on Wednesday week.

As Durham still have ten championship matches left, they will be praying that Akhtar stays fit. He was reported to be suffering from sore toes last week and had been lined up by Hampshire for this season until doubts about his fitness persuaded them to sign Wasim Akram instead.

Akhtar has said that many of his injuries have resulted from the same reason he was banned for throwing - hyperextension of his joints.

When he was banned early last year he went to visit the human performance department at the University of Western Australia in Perth, where they confirmed that his arm was straight at the point of delivery.

"They discovered that whereas a normal person's joints move about 20 per cent maximum, my elbow can move 42 per cent," he said. "It's the same with all my joints. It's why I have had so many injuries."

He also suffers from flat feet and has his boots specially made in Birmingham.

Durham have been trawling the globe for a month to find a replacement for Dewald Pretorius since his selection for the South African tour squad, and chairman Bill Midgley said: "There have been a few in the frame, but one player we were keen on developed an injury. After our recent experiences we were glad he wasn't injured after he arrived.

"We are not likely to see much of Stephen Harmison for the rest of the season because of his England commitments, so we are lacking a strike bowler and are very pleased to be signing Akhtar. If he can bowl at 100mph again he should be quite an attraction.

"We are paying him a basic fee plus appearance money just in case there are injury problems. But we are due a bit of luck on that score as Pretorius was injured twice during his brief stay and Martin Love has just recovered from a broken thumb."

Durham also heard on Friday that Love is required by Australia for their two home Tests against Bangladesh next month.

As they had Indian seamer Javagal Srinath as a stand-in for Love at the start of the season, Akhtar will exhaust their allowance of four overseas men in one campaign.

He first visited Riverside during the 1999 World Cup.

His first appearance was to be in a warm-up game against Durham, but it was washed out after ten overs with Pakistan batting.

He then took three for 11 in a match against Scotland at the Chester-le-Street ground and returned last year to play for Lashings against Durham.

He was controversially drafted in by Somerset to play against the Australian tourists in 2001, but has no other experience of county cricket.

He didn't play at all until he was 15, but made his Pakistan debut in 1997 at 21. Injury has restricted him to 25 Tests, in which he has taken 88 wickets at 27.18 with best figures of six for 11 against New Zealand in Lahore. Yesterday's match was his 88th one-day international.

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