Hauritz moves to New South Wales

Nathan Hauritz, the Queensland offspinner, has decided to leave Queensland and move to New South Wales (NSW) to try and revive his fledgling Test career.

Hauritz, 24, who made a solitary Test appearance against India in November 2004, on a dustbowl at Mumbai where he took five wickets, was moving to NSW without any club or state contract. "I still want to play for Australia and I see this as my best chance," Hauritz told AAP. "I'll head down there, get a job, play grade cricket and see what happens."

Hauritz debuted for Queensland in 2000-01, taking a total of 59 first-class wickets at 47.8 with a best of 4 for 95. In 73 one-day games for the state, he has taken 90 wickets at 29.95. However, since his Test debut he has played just seven games for Queensland, going wicketless in his only first-class match last season. In February 2005, he was dropped from the squad to make way for Mitchell Johnson, the left-arm fast bowler. "Queensland has a fast bowling culture and I see this as a fantastic opportunity to go down there [NSW] and work within a spin bowling culture," said Hauritz of bowling in the Sydney Cricket Ground, traditionally Australia's most spin-friendly venue. "I want to move to the next level and the opportunity to work with guys like Greg Matthews and Stuart McGill is too good to pass up."

His domestic one-day record this season in the ING Cup shows better figures with seven wickets in 10 matches at an average of 61.42. "I could have stayed here and probably been a good one-day spinner for Queensland for the next 10 years but I want to play both forms of the game - one-day and four-day cricket - and I want to give myself a chance to play Test cricket again.

"It's exciting but at the same time it was also a really hard decision to leave all the guys I've played junior cricket with," says Hauritz of his plan to move. "I've got to back myself and do what I think is best for me right now. I can't wait to get down there and get into it."

Terry Oliver, the Queensland coach, said that the door was always open for Hauritz to come back. "It's a gutsy move and if he's going to do it then now is the right time," he said. "Horrie has been a tremendous asset to Queensland Cricket and has been one of our form one- day players over the last couple of years."