Last updated at 16:02, Thursday, 14 February 2013

BARROW CC are looking for a new professional after first-choice Australian Travis Head proved too good for his homeland to let go.

CONTACTS Former Ernest Pass pro Pieter Malan

Head had been lined up as a replacement for last year’s pro Vaughn van Jaarsveld, who impressed with the ball but never really settled into life at Ernest Pass.

Under-19 World Cup star Head had been approached as a big-hitting batsman to lift the run-scoring rates for Barrow, but he has now been awarded a scholarship by Cricket Australia, preventing him from taking up his role.

Club spokesman Ian Allington revealed the youngster had proven himself just too good in domestic competition over the winter and Barrow were now looking at several other options, with just two months to go before the start of the Northern League season.

“It’s a bit disappointing, but they’ve given him a scholarship and that’s a big thing in Australia, so you can hardly blame him,” said the experienced batsman, a regular for the Barrow A-team last season.

“We were hoping it would be next year he was going to get picked up, but he had such a successful end to the season.

“He was under-18s player-of-the-tournament in a state competition they just had and he had three scores of 80-plus and a hundred.

“That has maybe accelerated his promotion – they maybe didn’t have it planned before that.

“We’ve spoken to the agent we got him through and I don’t think even Travis was expecting anything this year.”

Allington and the Barrow board will meet this week and will continue to do so until the situation is resolved to find a replacement for Head.

Several names are already in the hat – including former Fleetwood professional Rassie van der Dussen – with Allington hopeful of a solution sooner rather than later.

He added: “We’re in a bit of an awkward situation now, but at least we have a couple of months to try and get our hands on somebody else.

“We’re going to look for a similar player now – I think we need a batsman who bowls.

“The weakness for us is on the batting side, especially from an experience point-of-view, but the bowling we thing is a bit better.

“There are a couple of names we have already had a look at and it is now just a case of getting a player on the right deal.

“There a couple of South Africans and a couple of Australians, basically the same people we looked at before.

“We’ve been getting endorsements from Pieter Malan, who we had over a couple of years ago, and former Leyland professional Brett Pelser, to get some ideas.

“Any player at this level can play cricket and it’s just a case of getting a solid guy who is going to fit into the club and get on with stuff.”

First published at 15:58, Thursday, 14 February 2013
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk