Cricket: County closing in on Maddy signature.

WARWICKSHIRE are closing in on on Leicestershire's former England all-rounder Darren Maddy as a possible signing for next season.

Maddy's agent held constructive contract talks at Edgbaston on Monday and Warwickshire are now believed to be one of three counties with a realistic chance of recruiting 32 year-old if he decides to leave his native county.

Warwickshire have targeted Maddy, who is out of contract with Leicestershire at the end of the month, because of his one-day expertise.

He won the Man of the Match Award in this season's Twenty20 Cup final against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bidge and also became the first batsman to score 1,000 career runs in cricket's new short form tournament.

Having been left out of Leicestershire's side for half of the season, Maddy is rumoured to be considering seeing out his career away from Grace Road. This is his benefit year and Leicestershire are understood to be in the process of making him a new offer in an attempt to head off Warwickshire's interest.

Warwickshire are also increasingly optimistic about retaining the services of Scotland one-day international batsman Navdeep Poonia.

The highly-regarded 20-year-old from Wolverhampton has been linked with a possible move to Gloucestershire. But Warwickshire have offered Poonia a new two-year contract and had encouraging talks with him yesterday.

The futures of experienced batsmen Mark Wagh and Michael Powell and all-rounder Dougie Brown will be thrashed out at contract meetings later this week.

Warwickshire have yet to make a formal approach for Lancashire's former England all-rounder Dominic Cork who has been linked with a possible move back to the Midlands.

Warwickshire have decided against making an offer for Usman Afzaal, the Northamptonshire and former England left-hander.