Jaques' registration cleared for Yorkshire

Phil Jaques, the former Australia batsman, has had his registration as a non-overseas player for Yorkshire cleared by the ECB but was unable to resume his county career when rain washed out the opening day against Essex at Headingley.

Jaques, who has scored 2477 first-class at 61.92 runs for Yorkshire in his previous spells with the county, had a meeting on Monday where the paperwork was completed and now cannot play cricket in Australia except at club level.

"It is quite a while now since I played for Yorkshire and I am really excited to get back into it," he said. "There are a lot of good players at the club and I hope that I can help to get Yorkshire back into the Division One of the Championship where they belong."

Jaques was looking forward to working with former Australia team-mate Jason Gillespie, Yorkshire's new coach, to turn the team's fortunes around. "He was a senior player when I first got into Australia's side and we will be in similar roles now," he said.

While Jaques' situation was good news for Yorkshire, events across the Atlantic in the Caribbean have created difficulties in completing the signing of Mitchell Starc, Australia's left-arm fast bowler, who is lined up to bolster their bowling resources.

It had been hoped that Starc would be able to make his debut on May 9 against Gloucestershire but injuries to James Pattinson and Peter Siddle during the current Test series against West Indies mean that he could now be recalled for the third Test in Dominica next week. That, in turn, could impact when Cricket Australia are willing to release him for a county stint, although he has had little cricket recently.

Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire's director of cricket, hopes to have a clearer picture when the Test series is complete.