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Hampshire may have found a way round England Cricket Board's refusal to allow them to register New Zealand's Shane Bond for the coming season.
Bond needs a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from New Zealand Cricket (NZC) before he can be registered.
But because he signed for the unauthorised Indian Cricket League (ICL), he was banned by NZC and, as a result, it declined to give him an NOC because he was no longer considered to be its responsibility.
That appeared to leave him in limbo, but Southampton's Southern Echo newspaper has reported that Hampshire officials have been privately negotiating with NZC. According to Paul Terry, the county's coach, they are close to finalising an agreement that would allow him to play.
"It is looking good," Terry told the newspaper.
"He arrives this week so hopefully we will not have to send him straight back. We are pretty sure that everything is close and the registration and all those types of things will be fine."
Rod Bransgrove, the Hampshire chairman, confirmed the position to the BBC.
"We're quite hopeful Shane will start the season for us. We've got a form of words now from NZC which we think will fulfil the expectations of the ECB for registration."
The ECB was expected to give its final stance on at least eight overseas players in county cricket, including Bond and former Black Cap Hamish Marshall, who are due to sign with the rebel ICL in the next couple of days.
Marshall plays for Gloucestershire and his case is more complicated because he has an Irish passport and could take the ECB to court on the grounds of restraint of trade.
The eight players are ready to resort to legal action, depending on the ECB's decision.
The ECB has maintained it is on sound legal ground, but that is disputed by Andrew Fitch-Holland, who represents South African Andrew Hall and Marshall.
"My clients are suffering because they have signed contracts that start this summer," he said.
"But they signed good-faith contracts and at the time had no reason to think that there would be consequences. How is it fair and reasonable that they are now prevented from playing?"
Under the ECB's own regulations, any player refused registration has a right to a personal hearing or an appeal in front of a three-man panel with representatives from the ECB, the Professional Cricketers' Association and an independent arbitration organisation. However, this has not been offered to Marshall and Hall as an option.
Bond told Christchurch newspaper The Press that he had a clearance from NZC.
"I'm not going all the way there only to turn around and have to come home again," he told the newspaper from the United States, en route to London
Bond said he gained a clearance from NZC to play in the ICL last year when it was believed he could do both.
That changed when the International Cricket Council produced a regulation from its constitution that prevented players from appearing in unauthorised events.
- NZPA
