Worcs cool Jayawardene talk
Nov 20 2009 - 07:49:03
Worcestershire have played down reports suggesting they are keen to sign Sri Lanka wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene as their overseas player for the first half of next season.
Director of cricket Steve Rhodes has already sealed a deal to bring Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan to New Road for the second half of the 2010 campaign and is now searching for a new wicketkeeper after Steve Davies opted to move to Surrey.
However, Rhodes said: "I do admire Jayawardene. He's a wonderful keeper and can certainly score runs as well but it's news to me that he's coming here.
"We could go down the overseas route with the keeper but there are plenty out there and we could go down the loan route.
"There are a lot of decent keepers who aren't going to get a start in the first team of their counties and that could be a wise way of using the loan system.
"If you look at football, it happens quite a lot with keepers. Joe Hart is on loan at Birmingham and Ben Foster did the same at Watford.
"There is only one goalkeeper and one wicketkeeper that can play and sometimes some counties and clubs have got more than one decent one so you can pick up some decent loan keepers."