Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BEEFY: COME AND JOIN US, RASHID
Botham set to offer Durham escape route to leggy and tells Yorkshire: I have got no sympathy for you
ENGLAND legend Ian Botham has chucked Adil Rashid a Test career lifeline by offering him a potential deal at Durham.
Rashid was a left-field selection for England’s Test next week at Edgbaston – the 1000th in their history – after giving up red-ball cricket.
But some stunning displays in the one-day series led to National Selector Ed Smith picking him for Birmingham and provoking a storm.
Rashid seems to have burned his bridges with Yorkshire who expected him to be available for the domestic T20. And Smith has told him he needs a red-ball contract next year to make the Test team.
Now Beefy, chairman at Durham, is ready to step in and offer him a deal – and put two fingers up at his nearest neighbours after seeing players such as Mark Stoneman and Keaton Jennings defect to other counties.
Botham said: “We will see what he does but we will definitely talk to him. Of course we will.
“It is very hard to have much sympathy for Yorkshire. I have lost players – we have lost five key players at Durham – that have been poached around the north. I say poached and I stick by it.
“It is very competitive out there and everyone wants to get out of the second division. We won’t do it this year but we’ll do it next year with the way we are going and the way we are restructuring. We need to make it a side that people like Adil Rashid will look at and say ‘it is only up the road and I can see where they are going and I’d happily go there’.
“We have got to make ourselves attractive to guys like Adil. I have very little sympathy for anyone who is having players poached because we have just lost five. I really couldn’t care and if I can get in on the act I will.”
If Rashid plays in England’s landmark Test – Smith has named a squad of 13 – Botham is confident he can get among the Indians despite the latest controversy.
He added: “I have seen some pretty ridiculous stuff over the last couple of days and I am very much on his side.
“It is the best conditions for him. The pitches are dry and I am pretty certain he will get purchase out of them and Edgbaston does turn anyway.
“England should be playing their best players regardless of white ball/red ball contracts. If he is an English-qualified player and he can play – play. Cut all the bull out.”