Carter signs new deal at Warwickshire

Neil Carter has signed a new one-year contract with Warwickshire, thus ending speculation about his future. Michael Powell is also expected to extend his contract with the county until 2006.

Northamptonshire and Derbyshire had both expressed an interest in signing South-African born Carter, 29, who eventually chose to remain with the county who he has played for four years since leaving Boland.

But claims in the Coventry Evening Telegraph suggest that Carter, a seamer, was only offered the new contract after Warwickshire failed in their bid to sign another seamer, Jon Lewis, who plays for Gloucestershire.

However, Carter's position would have been strengthened by the loss of his team-mate, the 21-year-old Graham Wagg, who was banned earlier this month from playing for Warwickshire until 2006 after failing a drugs test. And, to further bolster his claims for a new contract, Carter was his county's second-highest wicket-taker after Dougie Brown in 2004, taking 27 wickets at just over 44.