Doshi row delays toss in Championship match

The toss in the Championship match between Sussex and Warwickshire was delayed after Sussex lodged a complaint over the eligibility of Nayan Doshi who had been named in Warwickshire's starting XI.

Doshi walked out on Surrey last month and was signed by Warwickshire earlier this week on a short-term contract to take him through to the end of the season.

Warwickshire circulated his registration details to the other counties yesterday, but Sussex formally lodged a complaint with the ECB and sought clarification as to which clause Doshi had been registered under.

Sussex stated that Gus Mackay, the county's chief executive, had been in contact with the ECB over the past two days and by the scheduled toss time - 10.30am - he had not received sufficient clarification over Doshi's eligibility.

Fifteen minutes later the umpires were advised by the ECB that Doshi was not eligible as he had not met the necessary registration requirements.

"Under regulations governing the qualification and registration of cricketers in the ECB 2007 regulations and playing conditions, regulation 4.3 (iii) states that to transfer a registration between two first-class counties in one season there must be agreement between the two first-class counties involved," said an ECB spokesman. "The ECB allowed the toss to be delayed by 15 minutes to allow such agreement to be confirmed in order to complete the registration process at Hove but it was not possible to obtain that agreement in time for today's match."

Relations between the two counties have been strained in recent days after it emerged that Warwickshire had approached Mushtaq Ahmed with a view to him joining them next season.