Warwickshire are contemplating re-signing former all- rounder Graham Wagg, who left the club after failing a drugs test in September 2004.

Wagg met with Warwickshire's new coach, Mark Greatbatch, last week and the club will monitor the progress of the player over the coming weeks.

"My meeting with Mark went really well," Wagg told The Post. "He said he wanted to meet me, to see what I looked like and get to know me a bit.

"I really liked him. I think he'll be very good for the club.

"I'm banned until January, so I think it's unlikely that anyone will sign me before then but I've told Warwickshire I won't sign for another county before I've spoken to them. They will always be my first choice."

If Warwickshire do not sign Wagg, several other counties are likely to step in. It is not long since he was an England A tourist and, aged just 22, he has a lot of cricket left in him. Derbyshire and Essex are expected to lead the chase.

"I'm very fit," Wagg said. "I'm working outdoors and I gradually built up my bowling while I was working in Holland. Everything is fine in that respect.

"The plan was always for me to fill the boots of Dougie Brown when he finally calls it a day. That was a good aim and I think it still is."

It may be relevant, however, that the club signed another young all-rounder, Tim Groenewald, last week on a two-year contract. Wagg will have to be mighty impressive in the indoor school if he is to earn another chance at Edgbaston.

He can certainly bat. One could dismiss a single six off Shane Warne as a 'lucky slog' but Wagg thrashed three in a row - and four in an over - off the world's greatest bowler in a totesport League game, cementing the impression that he is a very gifted player.

His bowling remains unproven. As a left-armer capable of swinging the ball both ways, he will always be dangerous, yet he sometimes struggled to achieve sufficient pace to bother good batsmen on sound wickets and his history of back trouble remains a worry. John Inverarity once remarked that, even before the drugs ban, Wagg had very little chance of making the grade.

The career hiatus may yet prove to be a blessing in disguise for Wagg. Not only has the experience been the catalyst he needed to help him mature, but it has also allowed his back to recover fully from a stress fracture that limited his bowling opportunities in 2004.

The talented, but foolish, youth who left the club at the end of 2004 is now a mature young man. He has learnt from his mistake. Wagg never, privately or publicly, sought to blame anyone but himself for his predicament and never complained about his treatment from Warwickshire. He remains a fan of the team.

Perhaps it is more important that Warwickshire are even entertaining the thought of re-signing him. At the time he was banned, such a scenario was unthinkable.

The Keith Piper case may prove to be a watershed moment in the history of county cricket. When Warwickshire's long-serving wicketkeeper failed the second drugs test of a brilliant career, the club were forced to confront issues and now take a more compassionate - realistic, even - view of players who have left the straight and narrow.

They have done much to help Piper and a new spirit has developed at the club. Gone are the days when punishment was the only reaction.

The enlightened mind embraces alternatives and Warwickshire, to their credit, now take a more holistic view towards players who err.

But re-signing Wagg would be much more than a message of reconciliation. It would secure the services of a talented all-rounder with the bulk of his career before him.