Mick Newell wasted no time in securing Jackson Bird as Nottinghamshire’s replacement for Peter Siddle, and the Director of Cricket says persuading overseas players to come to Trent Bridge is a far from difficult task.
Newell, who brought the likes of Stephen Fleming, David Hussey and Adam Voges to the Club as overseas players, is a believer in giving cricketers a great experience in the East Midlands.
This leads to them often returning, or becoming advocates, with Bird naming Siddle, Hussey, Ed Cowan, Ben Hilfenhaus, Michael Lumb and Andre Adams as people with whom he discussed the potential move.
“We already had vibes that Peter’s situation was worse than the press were letting on," said Newell. "We managed to check out which players would be available.
“Moving for Jackson was a fairly swift operation. It’s not a hard place to persuade players to come.
"We have the ground, international players and good coaches like Peter Moores, Wayne Noon and Andy Pick. Hopefully it’s an easy decision for people to come here.
“Hussey and Lumb have been quite instrumental. They know him from playing in Australia.
“They put a good word in for the way we do things. It was probably one of the easier contracts to put together because Jackson wanted to come here and play cricket.
“If you look back, you rarely go wrong with an Australian overseas player,” the 51-year-old continued. “That’s what we’re hoping for.
“We hope he brings enthusiasm, a skill level and some experience to a young attack.”
As a seam and swing bowler for whom consistent line and length has been the cornerstone of his success, Newell knows Bird to be a bowler in a similar mould to the man he is replacing.
With his 185 first class wickets to date having come at 24.56 – and a five-wicket haul last time out for Australia in New Zealand under his belt – it’s a method that’s paid dividends for the Tasmania man.
“He’s very much like Siddle, if you compared him to any other bowler in the Australian system it would be Peter,” explained Newell.
“Hopefully he’ll be useful in English conditions here, especially early season. It’s a small pool of players that are available, interested and allowed to come by their governing bodies, given various games and competitions around the world.
“It’s something we have to keep an eye on through the winter in case these things happen. It made the move to get Jackson involved a bit easier because we had put feelers out.”
With Bird wishing to focus on his red ball skills having recently made the breakthrough at international level, the signing also means exciting opportunities for his fellow Australian Dan Christian, and Nottinghamshire’s crop of domestic bowlers.
“He won’t play white ball cricket,” Newell said of his new signing.
“He’s broken into Australia’s Test squad again. That made it an easy sell to play ten four day games.
“It allows us to play Dan Christian in 50 over cricket, which I think is a good thing. He did very well in that comp.
“It frees up a space for a genuine quick bowler. We want to get them playing in all forms.
“We want to see Luke Wood and Brett Hutton get into the 50-over team. Dan is a hard hitting batsman that we can get into our middle-order and a useful bowler.
“Possibly it makes us a better side. It makes us a better batting side.
“I don’t think it makes us any worse. The question will be can some of the young quick bowlers play well in the other format?
“It’s up to the young bowlers to show they have one day skills as well as four day skills.”
Six Specsavers County Championship matches will remain when Bird departs at the time of Australia's tour of Sri Lanka in July.
In terms of an overseas player for the final six four day matches, Newell is keeping his options open.
“We’re in a good place when Jackson goes in early July. Dan will still be here. We can look at where we’re at.
“We can assess with six games to go where we stand. We might have someone in for six, four or nothing at all.”
The 2015 season saw dramatic last-gasp four day victories, thrilling limited-overs contests and an historic Investec Ashes Test, all in the unique surroundings of Trent Bridge.
Next season, we’d wager, will be no less enthralling and frankly we’d hate for you to miss out.