Tasmania sign Mark Cosgrove

Mark Cosgrove has been thrown a lifeline having signed with Tasmania in the final round of contract negotiations after being sacked by South Australia. Cosgrove, who played one-day international cricket for Australia four years ago, was a surprise axing from the Redbacks' list for next season and was snapped up by a Tasmania side chasing top-order batting talent.

At 25, Cosgrove has plenty of cricket ahead of him, but his weight has been an ongoing issue and contributed to him playing less games than he could have for South Australia. Last summer, he was second on the state's list of Sheffield Shield averages with 511 runs at 42.58, but he was told there was not a spot for him next season.

Cosgrove, who is currently playing with Glamorgan, will add experience to a Tasmania batting line-up that has lost Daniel Marsh to retirement. The Tigers have finalised their squad for 2010-11 and there was no place for Michael Dighton, John Rogers or Wade Irvine, all of whom were delisted from last season's group.

However, they have left the door open for Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, their overseas signing for the Big Bash last summer, to expand his role to the other formats next season. Rana will join the Tigers again for the Twenty20 tournament and, if available, the state will consider him for the four-day and 50-over competitions.

The only other addition from the initial squad that was named last week was the former ACT batsman Ashton May, who has been given a rookie deal. Tasmania are keen for more improvement from their developing squad after last summer finishing second-last in the Sheffield Shield but winning the FR Cup.

Tasmania squad George Bailey, Travis Birt, Luke Butterworth, Steven Cazzulino, Mark Cosgrove, Ed Cowan, Gerard Denton, Xavier Doherty, Alex Doolan, Brendan Drew, James Faulkner, Brett Geeves, Adam Griffith, Ben Hilfenhaus (Cricket Australia contract), Jason Krejza, Rhett Lockyear, Tim Macdonald, Adam Maher, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Tim Paine (CA), Ricky Ponting (CA), Jon Wells.

Rookies Matthew Day, Brady Jones, Hamish Kingston, Ashton May, Jeremy Smith, Tom Triffitt.