AUSTRALIA'S delay in choosing their Ashes tour party is causing problems for English counties wanting to finalise their playing staffs before the season begins in earnest.
Five clubs - Essex, Hampshire, Middlesex, Surrey and Yorkshire - are anxiously waiting for news today regarding the availability of Australians whom they have provisionally signed for the summer.
The problem has been compounded by the mess that the Australian selectors made of rejigging their side in South Africa after the recent 2-1 Test series win there.
Before the one-day internationals, won 4-3 by Australia, three players were sent home and replacements brought out. But the reshuffle was badly handled, causing widespread ill-feeling.
The Australian Cricket Board selectors cancelled their original decision to reveal the names for the Ashes tour in South Africa last week, and have waited until today to allow the players to get home.
However, the one positive decision they have reached is to appoint Mark Taylor as captain for the Ashes tour. Taylor's poor form with the bat, allied to a recurrence in South Africa of back trouble, had made him the target of a campaign waged by former players such as Dennis Lillee and Terry Alderman. But the selectors decided to emphasise their faith in Taylor by confirming his re-appointment a day in advance of announcing the rest of the party.
The muddle has meant that Yorkshire, who want opening batsman Michael Slater, have begun their season - with a non-championship game against Lancashire - with the tangle still unresolved.
Yorkshire out-bid Middlesex for Slater. If he is unavailable, there is a body of opinion within the Headingley playing staff that they can manage without an overseas name, but cricket chairman Bob Platt is understood to have drawn up a list of alternatives.
Middlesex went for Greg Blewett but their coach, Don Bennett, conceded that the South Australian, who scored a double hundred in Johannesburg, is a near certainty for the Ashes party. Middlesex have set their sights on the young South African Test all-rounder Jacques Kallis as an alternative. He will only bowl in one-day competitions, however, because of previous back trouble.
Surrey want fast bowler Brendon Julian for another season but he was called up for the Australian one-day series in South Africa. Paul Sheldon, the Surrey chief executive, commented: ``It's all very difficult. I think that if we can't get Julian we may go without.''
Hampshire's Australian choice is left-handed opener Matthew Hayden. The Queenslander failed in the South African series and the club are confident that he will be soon settling in at Southampton.
Essex are hoping to retain another Queenslander, Stuart Law, for a second season. Their vice-captain, Nasser Hussain, is optimistic that Law will be available but added that the county had alternatives in mind in an emergency.
The forthcoming Test series involving Pakistan and West Indies - both against Sri Lanka - has created further complications. The champions, Leicestershire, are still in negotiation with West Indian Phil Simmons over his return and chief executive Tony Norman said: ``Everything depends on whether he'll be picked for his country.''
Wasim Akram comes back to Lancashire and Mushtaq Ahmed to Somerset, while Waqar Younis has transferred his allegiance to Glamorgan, but none is expected to be free until May after Pakistan's Test series.
THE Pakistan Cricket Board have imposed a two-year playing ban on former Test captain Aamir Sohail following his allegations that unspecified Pakistan Test players had been indulging in gambling.
A Board spokesman said Sohail''had failed to provide any evidence in support of his allegations and had been found guilty of violating the PCB code of conduct for players.
Sohail termed the action an ``act of victimisation'' and added: ``It is aimed at ruining my career.''
Curtly Ambrose enters the fifth Test against India in Guyana today, needing five victims to be the fourth West Indian to take 300 Test wickets.
19 August 1996: Best of English stifled by teams feasting on glut of foreigners
Overseas Players (possible line-up)
Derbyshire: (Dean Jones). Durham: (David Boon). Essex: (Stuart Law). Glamorgan: (Waqar Younis). Gloucs: (Shaun Young). Hants: (Matthew Hayden). Kent: (Paul Strang). Lancs: (Wasim Akram). Leics: (Phil Simmons or Lance Klusener). Middlesex: (Greg Blewett or Jacques Kallis). Northants: (Mohammad Akram). Notts: (Mohammad Zahid). Somerset: (Mushtaaq Ahmed). Surrey: (Brendon Julian). Sussex: (Vasbert Drakes). Warwicks: (Allan Donald). Worcs: (Tom Moody). Yorks: (Michael Slater.)