Klinger heads to South Australia

South Australia missed out on signing Chris Rogers but they have picked up another experienced top-order player with Victoria's Michael Klinger set to move to Adelaide for 2008-09. Klinger has signed a two-year deal with the Redbacks that he hopes will lead to more frequent first-class appearances than during his past few seasons.

"[The move] will definitely give me a better opportunity than if I stayed in Victoria," Klinger told the Australian Jewish News. "I haven't given up hope of playing for Australia so that was a major factor in making the decision to move.

"In Victoria I wasn't likely to play ten games a year whereas over there, if I perform well early in the year I will. So that will give me opportunities to put up big numbers and in a couple of years maybe I could go down that track [of pushing for higher honours]."

Klinger, 27, was only chosen for four Pura Cup games in 2007-08 as Nick Jewell, Rob Quiney and Lloyd Mash were preferred for opening duties and the middle order remained settled. The addition of Rogers to the Bushrangers' squad would only make it harder for Klinger to hold down a spot.

South Australia, on the other hand, have lost Matthew Elliott and Darren Lehmann during the past six months and their top order struggled in the second half of the season. Klinger will also be a valuable one-day player for the Redbacks - he battled through seven FR Cup games this summer but was one of Victoria's best limited-overs batsmen the previous season.

He said he had parted on good terms with Victoria, who released him with a year left on his contract. Klinger, a former captain of the Australia Under-19s, made his state debut aged 18 in 1998-99 and has scored 1569 runs at 27.05 from 39 first-class matches.