Brigade sprung something of a surprise at this week's registration when revealing that the club is bringing in former Pakistani International opening bowler Ata-ur-Rehman ahead of the new campaign.

Rehman seems an odd choice for a club with an already strong suit in the bowling department; many felt they would have opted to replace Niall McDonnell and Richard Wylie in the order however with a highest score of 11 not out in his 13 Tests and 30 ODI’s, that wouldn't appear to be the case.

Moreover, the seamer hasn't played for his country since 1996, and in 2003 was given a lifetime ban by the ICC following a lengthy match fixing investigation. The general census of opinion at the time is that Rehman was cited for lying under oath as opposed to anything he did himself and the ICC subsequently binned the original ban in 2007.

By that stage Rehman was highly unlikely to be involved at representative level but at least the ruling allowed him to make some sort of a living playing the game.

Rehman has proved a competent batsman at league level in England in recent times, scoring 650 runs in the North Staffordshire league last year.

In his four season with Northop Hall in the Liverpool league his annual return was always around the 500 mark.

It remains to be seen how much of an appetite remains but one thing is for sure and that is the senior cup winners' seam options of Johnny Thompson, Ryan Brace, Mark Simpson, Graeme Moore, Nick Donnell and now Rehman will make them a very difficult proposition for a lot of sides this summer.