Leicester declare interest in Hoggard

Leicestershire have become the first side to declare an interest in signing the former England seamer, Matthew Hoggard, who was last week released by Yorkshire after a 15-year career at Headingley.

"We haven't spoken to him yet but we do want to talk to him," Leicestershire's chief executive, David Smith, told the BBC. "It has only come about since yesterday and we're hoping to speak to him at some point in the next day or two. We'll take it from there, but he is a player of the calibre we are interested in."

Hoggard's hopes of a contract could lie in the hands of Leicestershire's head coach, Tim Boon, who knows the bowler well from his days as Duncan Fletcher's assistant in the England set-up. "He knows Matthew quite well," said Smith. "We would like to speak to him about his intentions on continuing to play first-class cricket."

Hoggard finished the 2009 season as Yorkshire's leading wicket-taker, and in total claimed 331 wickets in 102 first-class matches for the county, as well as a further 248 in 67 Tests since 2000. "I still feel as though I've got a good few years in me," he said, "and it's up to me now to prove that Yorkshire were wrong to let me go."