Durham to sign Herschelle Gibbs for next season

By Jon Steer
August 12 2003

Durham are set to sign South African opener Herschelle Gibbs within the next few days as one of thier overseas players for next season.

Gibbs confirmed yesterday that he will be signing a one year deal to play for Durham very shortly. The South African opener is an experienced test player, if selected for all the tests this summer, the fifth test with England will be his 50th.

Gibbs averages over 45 in test matches and over 35 in one day internationals. He has scored over 9000 first class runs and is also becoming known as an excellent fielder.

So is this the end of the line for Martin Love as far as Durham are concerned? It seems unlikley that with the young talented batsmen we have that Moxon would want to use both overseas slots to sign batsmen so have the international commitments of Love become too much.

Gibbs will be available for Durham from April until August, his only commitment with South Africa is the ICC Champions tournament which will be held in England in September 2004.

Love on the other hand could be on international duty in June and July when Australia host Sri Lanka but it is only a two test tour so it wouldn't be a lengthy absence.

It appears that Gibbs had received offers from other counties but chose Durham on the recommendation of team mate Pretorius who may well be retained by Durham next season.

Pretorius' future with Durham will probably depend on whether Shoaib Akhtar has any interest in staying with Durham next season. Pakistan, like South Africa have very few commitments during the English season.