Warwickshire have had to abandon their attempts to sign Luke Pomersbach after they were unable to secure a work permit for him.

The Australian batsman has not played enough international cricket to fulfil the quality criteria required to gain a permit.

Though the club continue to examine other options, they face the growing prospect of going into the Twenty20 Cup without an overseas player. International players who have taken part in the Indian leagues bonanza are less keen to play county cricket, while those involved in the ICL face problems gaining ECB clearance.

To complicate matters further, Warwickshire's key man in such areas, cricket operations manager Keith Cook, has his hands full elsewhere. He departs to Venice today to get married.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Trott has received a reprimand under the ECB's discipline code following an incident during the championship match against Middlesex. Trott reacted to a dropped catch off his bowling by swearing very loudly. Middlesex batsman Vernon Philander was reprimanded and given three penalty points for incidents in the same match. Most seriously, Philander was found to have shown "serious dissent."