Murali brings up the fifty

Muttiah Muralitharan may only have one first-class fifty to his name, but he has unwittingly brought up a half-century of another kind. By joining Kent this week, Murali has become the 50th overseas signing in this year's English county season, which has had more comings and goings than a football transfer-deadline day.

Kent, like Glamorgan and Yorkshire, planned to employ only one overseas player for the summer, but have since given way under the pressure of injuries and poor results. Murali will replace first Andrew Symonds, then Mohammad Sami.

Kent are now one of four counties who have used their full allocation of four imports for the season, though only two can play at any one time.

Nine different nations make up the fifty. There are 18 Australians, 11 Pakistanis, seven South Africans, four Indians and New Zealanders, two Zimbabweans and West Indians, a Sri Lankan and a Kenyan.

And that doesn't include the five players who signed, but never showed up. Shane Warne was unable to take the captaincy at Hampshire after his ban, and Nathan Astle, Harbhajan Singh, Shane Bond and Matthew Elliott were ruled out by injuries.

The fifty foreigners:
Derbyshire: Michael Di Venuto, Mohammad Kaif, Shahid Afridi. Did not play: Nathan Astle
Durham: Martin Love, Dewald Pretorius, Javagal Srinath, Shoaib Akhtar
Essex: Scott Brant, Andy Flower
Glamorgan: Michael Kasprowicz, Jimmy Maher
Gloucestershire: Ian Harvey, Jonty Rhodes, Ian Butler, Shoaib Malik
Hampshire: Simon Katich, Wasim Akram. Did not play: Shane Warne
Kent: Andrew Symonds, Greg Blewett, Mohammad Sami, Muttiah Muralitharan
Lancashire: Stuart Law, Carl Hooper. Did not play: Harbhajan Singh
Leicestershire: Brad Hodge, Virender Sehwag
Middlesex: Abdul Razzaq, Ashley Noffke, Imran Tahir, Joe Dawes
Northants: Mike Hussey, Andre Nel, Damien Wright
Nottinghamshire: Chris Cairns, Stuart MacGill, Steve Elworthy, Daniel Vettori
Somerset: Jamie Cox, Nixon McLean
Surrey: Azhar Mahmood, Saqlain Mushtaq
Sussex: Murray Goodwin, Mushtaq Ahmed
Warwickshire: Collins Obuya, Waqar Younis, Michael Clark. Did not play: Shane Bond
Worcestershire: Andrew Hall, Nantie Hayward, Justin Kemp
Yorkshire: Yuvraj Singh, Stephen Fleming. Did not play: Matthew Elliott.