JOHANNESBURG, March 6: Pakistani tearaway Shoaib Akhtar confirmed on Thursday he had been approached by English county side Hampshire to play for them next season in place of disgraced spinner Shane Warne.

“They offered me a contract a few days ago through my agent Gary Millere and I was happy to accept,” the 27-year-old Shoaib said.

“The deal has yet to be signed but I will probably go to Hampshire next week for a fitness test.

“I am delighted to play county cricket again after missing a season with Nottinghamshire in 2000 due to injury.

“The legendary Imran Khan always stressed it was good to play county cricket since it helped to polish up one’s game.”

Shoaib added he had sought permission from the Pakistan Cricket Board to play in England during the summer.

The world’s fastest bowler, nicknamed the Rawalpindi Express, took 11 wickets in Pakistan’s unsuccessful bid to reach the Super Six stage of the World Cup.

During Pakistan’s game against England at Cape Town, Shoaib sent down the fastest recorded ball of all time to Nick Knight at 101.2 miles per hour and then made 43, the highest by a number 11 batsman in the history of one-day cricket.

Warne has a two-year contract as captain of Hampshire but was banned from all cricket for a year by the Australian Cricket Board last month after testing positive for a banned duiretic.

Warne withdrew from the World Cup ahead of his team’s first match against Pakistan on Feb 11.

Meanwhile, Shoaib’s Pakistani team-mate Abdul Razzaq blamed the team’s early exit from the World Cup on bad planning.

“We did not get the combination right, the balance of the team was not right,” the allrounder, who played for Middlesex, said.—AFP