WORCESTERSHIRE'S Twenty20 campaign is almost certainly over by now, but this particular cloud has a silver lining.

Should the County not progress in the competition, the Aussies will visit New Road for a three-day fixture starting on Saturday, July 30.

Given that, outside the Test matches, Australia will only play 10 days of first-class cricket, Worcestershire can count themselves very lucky.

It has been suggested mischievously in some quarters that there is more interest in the Australians than in Twenty20 qualification.

It is certainly true that the club would be financially better off with this scenario.

The players, on the other hand, stand to gain far more in prize money, not to mention fulfilment, from progress in the Twenty20.

What is certain is that this anomaly of the fixture list has created a potential conflict between the interests of club and players.

It is a situation which is unlikely to recur as the opposition for international tours will increasingly comprise representative sides with the counties missing out.

However, it is a situation which should not have occurred in the first place.

Further rumblings of an administrative nature derive from Worcestershire's sufferings at the hands of the one-day selectors.

It will be a cruel blow if we continue to be without three key players for the visit of Yorkshire should they all be selected for the NatWest Challenge which follows hard on the heels of the NatWest Series.

Claims that other counties suffer equally are not entirely true.

The majority of the England one-day team are centrally contracted and thus the counties expect to be without those players, do not have to pay them substantially and can pay for adequate replacements.

That is not Worcestershire's situation and what is worse, they are getting precious little cricket.

As normal service resumes against Yorkshire this week, Steve Rhodes will want to have a full-strength squad at his disposal.

Along with Durham, Yorkshire are the only other unbeaten team in the division.

As overseas player Phil Jaques offers quick, muscular runs at the top of the order, Ian Harvey's bag of tricks with bat and ball are all too familiar to New Road fans.

David Byas, in his first year in charge, is starting to mould a team in his own uncompromising image.

For Worcestershire, a full-strength squad would make for selection difficulties.

Nadeem Malik bowled the team into a winning position in the last four-day game, but he might have to make way if Shoaib Akhtar makes his anticipated first-class debut.

Daryl Mitchell would also have to step down, despite his heroics and consequent granting of a full-time contract.

How pleasing it is to have two local players graduating from the academy into first-class cricket. And how pleasing would it be to start this second-half of the season by inflicting Yorkshire's first defeat.