Sussex could be poised to bring Pakistan star Shahid Afridi to Hove.

All-rounder Afridi and Yasi Arafat, who played against Sussex for Scotland in the totesport League last season, are two names under consideration as the county hunt a replacement for Pakistan's Rana Naved ul-Hasan in case, as seems certain, he joins up for their tour of England in mid-June.

Afridi has decided not to play Test cricket until after the 2007 World Cup.

An approach by Sussex to former Australian Test bowler Andy Bichel was rebuffed.

Another Aussie, Michael Kasprowicz, was interested in a short-term contract after declining Glamorgan's offer to play for the whole season.

But Kasprovicz suffered a knee injury on Australia's tour of Bangladesh and has been ordered to rest.

The hectic international calender means Rana's replacement will come from either Pakistan, New Zealand or Australia.

Two other bowlers in the frame are Shaun Tait and Kyle Mills.

Tait, 23, made his Test debut in last summer's Ashes series but he was not selected for their tour of Bangladesh because of a back injury.

Mills, 27, has played six Tests and 60 one-day internationals for New Zealand and is on tour in South Africa until the middle of May.

Both are long shots. The most likely scenario is that Sussex will go for another Pakistani, once they know the make-up of the squad for this summer's tour.

Afridi, in particular, could make a potentially explosive contribution to Sussex's Twenty20 campaign.

Cricket manager Mark Robinson said: "The beauty of it is that we can still make a late decision but at the moment the odds are that we will be going for another Pakistani.

"Arafat comes highly recommended, both by Mushtaq (Ahmed) and Matt Prior who played against him in Pakistan last winter. We've also seen him bowl really well against us for Scotland too.

"Mushy has a list of players as long as his arm and it obviously helps sell the club when guys know he is here - we've seen that with Rana."

Rana returned to the side against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl yesterday. He is due to play in seven Championship games before linking up with Pakistan.