DURHAM will find themselves up against Shane Warne and his highly-rated fellow Australian Michael Clarke when they open their County Championship programme against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl today.

While Durham are without both their original choices as overseas players, Hampshire have gambled on going ahead with having Warne as captain, even though he could be missing for a large part of the season.

Australia are playing Zimbabwe in May and Sri Lanka in late June/early July, but none of that is any consolation to Durham as they prepare to face the man who recently made a remarkable return from his year's ban.

The suspension, for taking a banned substance contained in a diuretic, forced Hampshire to do without Warne last season.

But they are hoping he can get them off to the sort of flying start this time which will delight the marketing people who came up with the idea of erecting three 30ft stumps being hit by a giant red ball at the entrance to the Rose Bowl during the winter.

Clarke, 23, is also centrally-contracted by Australia but has so far played only in one-day internationals.

The New South Wales batsman also sounds to be a marketing man's dream as he has just signed the most lucrative sponsorship deal in Australian history with Slazenger, reputed to be worth 1.2 million Australian dollars.

Robin Smith has retired, leaving John Crawley, Derek Kenway and Will Kendall to support Clarke's runs, although wicketkeeper Nic Pothas is also a prolific scorer, while the attack will be led by Alan Mullally and the 6ft 7in former England Under 19 bowler Chris Tremlett, who has spent six months beefing up in a Sydney gym.

Durham will have Marcus North and Reon King deputising for Herschelle Gibbs and Shoaib Akhtar, and have included West Indian Gareth Breese in their squad.

If they are confident the off-spinning all-rounder has fully recovered from his broken arm he is likely to play ahead of Graeme Bridge, with North acting as the second spinner. Mark Davies has been preferred to Neil Killeen, with Graham Onions also stepping down from the team which played against Durham University.

* Durham paceman Stephen Harmison was yesterday awarded a six-month England contract, along with Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones and Graham Thorpe. Eight other members of the West Indian tour party, including Paul Collingwood, were awarded 12-month contracts last September.

Durham coach Martyn Moxon said: "Stephen is proving what a great bowler he is and the contract is justification for all the effort he has been putting in. The down side for Durham is that we are unlikely to see much of him this year."

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