KEY all-rounder Moham-mad Ali seems set to be the cornerstone of Hereford-shire's challenge for honours when the new season gets underway next month.

The left-arm paceman and middle-order batsman has re-joined the county after being released by Middlesex, for whom he made a number of first-class appearances last year.

"Ali will be the backbone of our side," said Hereford-shire's chairman of selectors Malcolm Morgan. "He should make a a tremendous difference to our side."

After lacking a consistently-available opening bowler for much of last season, Ali seems set to be joined in the side on a regular basis by Tom Glover who has spent the winter in Australia.

With these two opening the attack, youngster Morgan Rushbrooke, who made a favourable impression with bat and ball last term, can provide seam bowling back-up alongside captain Chris Boroughs.

Rushbrooke, who is in his final year at university, may, however, be missing for some of the early season one-day fixtures due to exam commitments.

But Herefordshire should have a ready-made replacement in teenager Chris Woakes who is seen as a player of high potential at Warwickshire.

"He has made amazing progress at Warwickshire," said Morgan. "This time last year, he was not even seen as a second-team cricketer at Warwickshire but now he has virtually by-passed the second-team to the fringe of the first-team."

Another young Warwick-shire cricketer, wicket-keeper Richard Johnson, who also turned out for Herefordshire last year may be considered later in the season but is ruled out of contention early on because of A-levels.

In his absence, Hereford-shire will be taking a look at Coventry wicket-keeper Ian Stevenson who has also played for Warwickshire 2nd.

"We have been told he is a decent chap, but he is a wicket-keeper and not a high order batsman," said Morgan.

To provide the batting experience, in addition to skipper Boroughs, Hereford-shire will still have the services of former Glamorgan opener Ian Thomas, who has declared himself available for all the early season one-day matches, and ex-Yorkshire opener Simon Kellett, who has said he wants to play in all of the games.

"As yet we have made no new signings," said Morgan. "We have a practice day on April 8 when we shall look to sign on further players from within Herefordshire."

Young Kington opener Ben Stebbings and the Brockhampton duo of Nick Denny and Adam Hewlett are among names under consideration by Morgan who remains optimistic for the coming season.

"We shall be giving the one-day MCC Trophy games our best shot and we have two home matches in that competition before we head north for games against Northumberland and Cumberland," he said.

"In the three-day championship, much will depend on availability but, if we can put out the team that we originally select then we have enough good players to compete with all the other sides."