CAMERON BANCROFT is excited about the prospect of playing county cricket with Durham this summer. But his arrival will be delayed and the Australian is set to miss the opening County Championship game.

Rather than lining up for his new employers at Derbyshire on April 5, the opener has been told he must attend an end of season awards dinner in Perth under instructions from his state side Western Australia.

Durham officials are, naturally disappointed, with the call.

The squad is now in South Africa preparing for the new campaign and chief executive Tim Bostock said: “He was persona non grata when we signed him in July. We took a chance on him and Western Australia and Cricket Australia should recognise that fact. He recognises it and has pushed strongly to get here on time.

“We only play two Championship matches before breaking off for a block of 50-over games. Missing one match does not sound like a big deal but those two games are huge for us as we try and start the season well and look for promotion.

“I can understand players missing games for international duty but to miss a game because of an awards dinner is ridiculous.”

Bancroft has promised his new employers he will do all he can to arrive in time for the first round of Division Two games.

Durham offered him a contract when Bancroft was banned from cricket after his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal. Along with Steve Smith and David Warner, he was part of a plan to change the ball in the Aussies test in South Africa by using sandpaper.

Since his return to action, Bancroft has impressed for Western Australia to the extent he could be called into the Aussie A squad for their tour of England from June 20 to July 4. From there, remains the possibility of joining the full squad for their Ashes tour.

In three Sheffield Shield games since his ban expired, he scored a century on his return, followed by two fifties. His average of 67.20 is the fifth best in this season’s competition.

Bostock added: “I don’t know if it’s good news or bad news that he got a hundred in his first first-class match back. I’d rather him scoring hundreds than not.

“If he gets a hundred in every single (Sheffield) Shield game, he’s got four games, we’ll see what (Justin) Langer does. One thing’s for sure, he’s not going to the World Cup, that’s the good thing.

“The relationships that James Franklin and Marcus North have got mean that if Bancroft ends up getting selected by Australia (for the Ashes), we’ve got contingencies in place.”

Franklin has recently been appointed Durham’s new head coach and their pre-season starts with a two-day game against Yorkshire on Monday.

The New Zealander has met up with Franklin and said: “I caught up with Cameron when I was in Australia when the team I was with, Brisbane, took on Perth and we had 10-15 minutes after the game.

“He’s extremely exciting about turning up, came across like a kid in a candy store and it’s about moving on now and playing cricket. He did well in the Big Bash and now in four day Sheffield Shield cricket he has started well.

“Cameron played county cricket a couple of years ago for Gloucestershire and it may take some time to get used to different conditions here.

“He has a point to prove and having been out of the game for nine months he will be ready and I can tell from watching him in the Big Bash he is incredibly hungry. He was part of Australia, but not part of the international side no more.

“He will want to push his case by scoring runs to get back into the Australia team.

“The way he is going at the moment, he may or may not be involved and if he scores a truckload of runs for us then he puts himself into Ashes contention.”