11:30am Wednesday 3rd February 2010
By Bruce Talbot
Sussex expect Murray Goodwin to stay at the county despite speculation linking him with a return to international cricket with Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwe Cricket Union hope to regain Test status after seven years in the wilderness and have approached several of their former players after restructuring their domestic first-class programme under new coaches David Houghton and Heath Streak with the help of ICC funding.
Goodwin, who played the last of his 19 Tests ten years ago, was approached last summer and there were reports he was about to be named in a provisional 30-man squad for the forthcoming tour to West Indies.
But after speaking to Goodwin at his home in Perth yesterday, Sussex coach Mark Robinson is confident he will see out the remaining year of his contract at Hove this summer.
Robinson said: “Zimbabwe did speak to Murray last summer but he has heard nothing since and it’s come as a shock to him to see his name linked with Zimbabwe again this week.
“It would have to tick an awful lot of boxes for Murray to go back to Zimbabwe cricket. He would give up the financial security of his Sussex contract and would probably have to move his family back there among other things.”
If Zimbabwe did tempt Goodwin back into the international fold he would automatically become an overseas player in county cricket and not eligible to play for Sussex, who have already signed Pakistan fast bowler Yasir Arafat for 2010.
Robinson is back at the club this week after spending a month in New Zealand where he coached England under-19s who were knocked out of the World Cup at the quarter-final stage by New Zealand.
He said: “I enjoyed it, especially the challenge of trying to forge a new team out of a group of players who did not know how I operate as a coach.
“I’m proud that by the end of the month they had become a really tight unit.”
England will begin preparing for the next World Cup in 2012 with a new group of players this summer and a different coach.
Robinson added: “I love what I do here at Sussex so that person is not going to be me but if there was an opportunity during the winter to work with them again I would like to.
“I learned a lot about how the ECB operates from the inside – the good things they do and the things that they would probably want to do better which is the same for any organisation.”
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.theargus.co.uk/trade_directory/