Worcestershire target Mishra

Worcestershire are interested in signing India legspinner Amit Mishra as their overseas player for the final stages of the season. Currently they have the services of Ashley Noffke, the Australian allrounder, but his stint finishes in early August and a spinner can be a valuable option in late-summer conditions.

"They have contacted me, and I am interested in playing for them," Mishra told Cricinfo. "The only problem is the paper work. If it gets through I am hoping to leave in the first week of August."

Mark Newton, the Worcestershire chief executive, said the club had a number of players they were looking at. "Amit Mishra is certainly on a list of players that we are talking to," he told the Press Association. "But I must stress that he is one of many players that we are talking too.

Mishra made his Test debut last year, and impressed right away with a five-for against Australia in Mohali.

Another Indian legspinner is currently impressing as a stop-gap arrangement. Piyush Chawla, filling in for Pakistan allrounder Yasir Arafat at Sussex, did so well in the two matches that he played that the Sussex followers nicknamed him "Pushy", which comes from the nickname for another of their favourite legspinners, Mushtaq Ahmed.