Surrey lead race for Giddins

Former England bowler Ed Giddins is being courted by three counties - champions Surrey and Second Division sides Middlesex and Worcestershire.

Surrey are short of an experienced bowler to help their bid for a third successive title and are set to have talks with 29-year-old Giddins.

Middlesex are also in the frame after losing England A bowler Richard Johnson to Somerset, while Worcestershire are looking for bowlers because pace bowler Glenn McGrath, who has just taken his 300th wicket for Australia, will be on Ashes duty here next summer.

Giddins, who lives in London, is unlikely to opt for the Midlands. Warwickshire were disillusioned with him last season and decided not to renew his contract after he took only 20 championship wickets.

When he took five for 15 against Zimbabwe at Lord's in May, he looked a certainty for the side for the rest of the summer, but he soon lost his Test place against the West Indies.

Surrey are expected to be favourites to sign him and, at 6ft 4in tall, the pacey pitches at The Oval should suit him. At his best he is still in the top half dozen of English bowlers.

He is one of the game's finest experimenters with clever and almost imperceptible adjustments of wrist position making the ball dart either way in the air and off the pitch.

Giddins, whose life away from the game has seen him work as a topless waiter in Sydney, a ski instructor in France and a male model, is used to being in demand.

He had claimed he was approached by up to 10 counties before signing for Warwickshire in 1998 following an 18-month ban for a drugs offence.

Giddins had been sacked by Sussex after testing positive for cocaine and played league cricket before his return to the first class game.

His appeal against the ban was turned down by Lord's, but when many were predicting he was finished in the first class game, he returned and forced his way into Nasser Hussain's Test team.