Yorkshire receive go-ahead to sign Best but Harris's arrival clouded

The club have received clearance from the West Indies Cricket Board to bring Best to Headingley Carnegie, subject to the player being granted a work permit.

The 28-year-old will be available until the end of April although Yorkshire say it is touch-and-go whether his paperwork will be processed in time for their opening County Championship game against Warwickshire at Edgbaston a week tomorrow.

There had been hopes Australian pace bowler Harris might be able to come to Headingley next month ahead of schedule following his surprise exclusion from the tournament in the Caribbean.

But although Yorkshire have still to confirm with Cricket Australia Harris's availability for the rest of the season, with the likelihood being that he will be called up for the neutral series against Pakistan in midsummer, they do not think he can come to England before May at the earliest.

The situation is mind-boggling and tough luck on Yorkshire, whose plans have been thrown into turmoil through no fault of their own.

But two players they definitely will not be seeing much of during the early part of the season are Tim Bresnan and Ajmal Shahzad, who were yesterday chosen in England's own Twenty20 World Cup party.

The pair could miss up to four Championship fixtures because of their involvement in a tournament that runs from April 30 to May 16.

Yorkshire's director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon commented: "It's an unsettling time because we're still trying to resolve our overseas situation and now we're going to be without Tim and Ajmal owing to the Twenty20 World Cup.

"We can't afford to moan and groan, however, and have just got to get on with things as best we can.

"I'm still trying to get information on Ryan Harris's situation but I can't see him being available to us in April, to be honest.

"He might be able to come to us after that but I just don't know because the picture seems to be changing every day."

Commenting on Bresnan's and Shahzad's call-ups, Moxon said: "It's good news for them, obviously, but it's going to challenge us.

"They'll be available for our first two Championship matches but the England squad meet up on the last evening of our third Championship game at Kent, so I don't know if they will be able to play in that fixture.

"Depending on how England get on in the World Cup, they could miss a number of matches; we just don't know.

"But to have two players in the England squad is a positive sign for the club going forward and a great credit to Tim and Ajmal."

Former Yorkshire batsman Michael Lumb is the only uncapped player in the World Cup squad, which sees Craig Kieswetter preferred behind the stumps to Matt Prior and recalls for Ravi Bopara and Michael Yardy.

There was no place for Yorkshire spinners Adil Rashid and David Wainwright, who were in the initial 30-man squad.

Yorkshire's Katherine Brunt and Danielle Hazell were named in the England women's Twenty20 squad.

England's Twenty20 World Cup squad: PD Collingwood (Durham, captain), JM Anderson (Lancashire), RS Bopara (Essex), TT Bresnan (Yorkshire), SCJ Broad (Nottinghamshire), C Kieswetter (Somerset), MJ Lumb (Hampshire), EJG Morgan (Middlesex), KP Pietersen (Hampshire), A Shahzad (Yorkshire), RJ Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), GP Swann (Nottinghamshire), JC Tredwell (Kent), LJ Wright (Sussex), MH Yardy (Sussex).