More overseas woe for Surrey

I'm sure everyone has read the news that Piyush Chawla, Surrey's much-lauded overseas signing for 2010, will no not be available until the end of May - and possibly well beyond - as he was selected in India's squad for the World Twenty20 in April/May in the West Indies.

We won't be seeing this celebration at the Oval any time soon...

Chawla, who I had previously considered to be behind Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha in the India-second-spinner-stakes, has clearly leapfrogged them both at a time when it is arguable that both Ojha and Mishra have out-bowled him in the IPL so far (certainly Mishra's bowling today - willing to give it loads of air and a big rip - was excellent).

The World Twenty20 ends on May 16th, but the bad news doesn't end there, India have a tour scheduled to Zimbabwe from May 28th right the way through June. I've read more than a couple of times that they will be sending a second string XI to Zimbabwe, and if Chawla has indeed jumped the queue for the spinners slot, he'll almost certainly go.

He probably won't play in the World Twenty20, Harbhajan will do the frontline spinning and Yuvraj, Yusuf Pathan and Ravi Jadeja will do the rest. I'd be surprised if they went in with two frontline spinners.

So what does this mean? Possibly no overseas spinner until July, and all the while Surrey still don't have a second overseas signing for the Twenty20. I hope Surrey have plenty up their sleeves on this one, we need proven Twenty20 cricketers if we are to even compete. If we don't recruit, we'll end up being embarrassed like we have been in the past two seasons, and that's not good enough.

Time and time again I've watched other counties recruit some real quality for the T20 cup - Afridi for Hampshire, Gilchrist for Middlesex, Pollard for Somerset and now Morkel and possibly Ross Taylor for Durham - while Surrey seemingly see fit to go in without. I can't see this tactic bearing fruit, but what do I know?