Time for an oldie...

That old adage "every cloud has a silver lining" may not seem especially appropriate for certain Pakistani international cricketers tonight.

On the face of it, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf's international careers are over, having received what from this distance appear to be absurd lifetime bans from their national side for supposedly being a disruptive element in the team.

I may be in a minority of one here, but Yousuf in particular has always shone like a beacon in their batting line up of late. A player with a full range of shots, a high backlift and the wristiness that only the outstanding Eastern batsman has, he alone in the last year or two has appeared to have the appetite for battle when the going got tough in anything other than twenty over cricket. With a Test average of 53 and a one day international average of ten runs less than that, this chap can play. He's not, to be fair, a twenty over player, but he has been their only truly outstanding batsman since the retirement of Inzamam-ul-Haq.

I would be very, very suprised if a county secretary of cricket manager didn't put on their best impression of Don Corleone and make him an offer he couldn't refuse sometime soon. At a time when truly world class overseas players are in short supply, the prospect of one who would be theoretically available from April to September should spark a major scramble.

I don't, however, see anyone making him their second T20 player, although I predict substantial interest in the likely availability of Rana Naved-ul-Hasan. He appears to be facing a year's ban and is a player of explosive potential, especially in the shorter form of the game.

He has never come off in Test cricket, though his record at Sussex was excellent. In twenty over games he has a highest score of 95 and has a bowling average of 21, boosted by an impressive ability to get the ball into the blockhole on a regular basis when batsmen are trying to lift the scoring rate at the end of an innings. He did well for Tasmania this winter and would be a shrewd signing for a county now they can count on his availability.

Whether he will come on John Morris' radar I couldn't say, but I would not be disappointed if he ended up in our squad for the summer slog-fest.

Elsewhere, there's a bit of a hokey-cokey going on around the counties. Sussex have a very good T20 signing coming in (Tillakaratne Dilshan) while Hampshire have, as I suggested might happen last week, signed Abdul Razzaq. On their day, Razzaq and Afridi will light up the Rose Bowl and they will certainly pull crowds. Meanwhile Lancashire look set to lose Kumar Sangakkara to a short notice Test series against India and Surrey have signed Rao Iftikhar to replace Piyush Chawla in the early season. Confused yet? Me too...

Worcestershire are ever more resigned that Steve Smith may not be available to play for them this summer, having been called up by Australia for the forthcoming Test tour of New Zealand.
I am sure that Directors of Cricket across the lad are gnashing their teeth right now at the vagaries of international scheduling.

Even more will be looking up the international code for Pakistan sometime soon.

Finally tonight, it is good to see Derbyshire are looking into the viability of a supporters trip to Holland for the game on July 30. I hope they manage to pull it off. It's just a pity that we're not more affluent so the club could pay half of the cost for the fans.

Isn't that the true meaning of "going Dutch?"

I'll get me coat, and see you soon. Pre-season previews are coming.