Yorkshire ready to recruit strike bowler to help bid for Twenty20 cash and glory

The club are considering recruiting a strike bowler as they chase their first appearance in a Twenty20 finals day and the multi-million riches of the Champions League.

Yorkshire plan to give West Indian pace bowler Tino Best the first chance to stake a claim for the role when he takes up a short-term contract at Headingley Carnegie.

Best has been recruited to help Yorkshire's County Championship campaign in the absence of first-choice overseas player Ryan Harris, who is currently playing in the Indian Premier League.

But Best could be retained on a longer deal if he impresses director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon and the Yorkshire coaching staff.

The 28-year-old is still awaiting his work permit and will miss Thursday's Championship game against Somerset at Headingley.

He is now expected to make his debut in Yorkshire's following Championship match against Kent at Canterbury starting a week tomorrow and is set to stay with the club until at least the end of May.

Counties are permitted to sign two Twenty20 overseas players this year and to have up to a maximum of four overseas players on their books at any given time.

And Yorkshire's chief executive Stewart Regan said the club were exploring all possibilities for Twenty20 cricket.

"We're weighing up our options as to whether to sign a second overseas player for that competition," he said.

"We've already got Herschelle Gibbs to boost our batting department and could potentially sign an overseas strike bowler to complement his signing.

"The plan at the moment is to give Tino Best a chance to show what he can do in English conditions and, if that works out, then he would be in the box seat so to speak.

"If it doesn't, we'd obviously reserve the right to bring somebody else in."

Regan believes Yorkshire have the makings of a strong Twenty20 team – particularly following their capture of Gibbs, one of world cricket's most explosive batsmen.

"Herschelle is a terrific signing," he added. "He's got a terrific track record and he's obviously got the ability to whack the ball out of the ground.

"Having him alongside the likes of Jacques Rudolph, Andrew Gale, Anthony McGrath and Tim Bresnan means we've got a pretty impressive batting line-up in Twenty20.

"There's lots of talent and power in that list and we're confident we can score plenty of runs.

"At the moment, we're trying to sort out our bowling attack and that's obviously the area of focus for the coaching staff.

"We'd like to complement the spinning options which have worked well for us in recent years with a hardening of the seam attack.

"If we can get another strike bowler we could potentially have a really strong Twenty20 side.

"Whether that proves to be Tino Best or another player, we'd like to get the final piece of the jigsaw in place if possible."