A new recruit for Hampshire?

In today's Australian Peter Lalor reports that Shane Warne is giving some help to the England selectors in their quest for new spin bowlers.

England's chairman of selectors, David Graveney, admitted on Saturday he had sought advice from Warne, who leads county side Hampshire.

"We have swapped phone numbers and will stay in touch," Graveney told the England's Sunday Telegraph.

Graveney approached Warne for his thoughts on who should be used as a back-up spinner for Monty Panesar on England's tour of Sri Lanka. Warne is a booster for his young Hampshire team-mate Adil Rashid...Warne was enthusiastic about Rashid, who has picked up 27 county wickets and averages 44 with the bat.

Hampshire team-mate? Even the original report which Lalor quotes gets that one right: Rashid plays for Yorkshire.

Yorkshire bowl three legspinners before lunch. What next, bananas growing in Barnsley?

Check out Simon Hughes' excellent Telegraph.co.uk written and video reports of yesterday's play in the Hampshire v Yorkshire match at a sun-drenched Rose Bowl. The video is especially interesting as it shows some footage of the two chief legspinners playing in the game: the old master Shane Warne (wearing whites with both the sun and number 23 on his back) and the young hopeful Adil Rashid. There's also an interview with Rashid.

The story so far: a strong Yorkshire team were bowled out for 299 (Younis Khan 106, Michael Vaughan - yes, the England skipper graciously released by the higher power- 72, Rashid 54) against a Hampshire attack including Warne and Stuart Clark (each of whom took one wicket).

Hampshire, despite good efforts by the relatively unknown Michael Brown (105) and Nick Pothas (70 no) fell 3 runs short on the first innings against an attack featuring the venerable Matthew Hoggard, Darren Gough and Jason Gillespie, promising young allrounder Tim Bresnan and three legspinners (Rashid, Younis Khan and Jacques Rudolph) each of whom bowled before lunch on day 2.

In their second innings Yorkshire are 2/49 overnight and Vaughan has retired hurt (is anyone surprised?), so the game is well poised. You can check the scores here.

The abundance of leg spin and early season sunshine has aroused Hughes' enthusiasm and led him to speculate about where it is all leading:

The likelihood, however, of Yorkshire fielding two home-grown leg spinners - Rashid and Mark Lawson - alongside the two occasional ones in this match - Jacques Rudolph and Younis Khan - must be without precedent in the Ridings. They'll be cultivating bananas in Barnsley next.

I highly recommend the video report to get a glimpse (if you've not already done so) of Rashid.