A NEW ECB ruling on the eligibility of Indian Cricket League players could open the door for Rana Naved-ul-Hasan to return to Yorkshire for the 2009 season.

The Pakistani overseas pace bowler has one more year on his White Rose contract, but all signs were the former Test and one-day star would not come back because of his links with the rebel ICL competition.

Yorkshire were expecting to be told by the ECB that if they fielded Rana in any of the four English domestic competitions, they would run the risk of being disqualified from the lucrative Champions League Twenty20.

As a consequence, the Tykes had been in preliminary discussions about cancelling his contract. Now they will wait until an ECB verdict has been finalised next month at Lord’s before deciding upon their next step.

Yorkshire chief executive Stewart Regan said: “The latest news is that the ECB may only restrict Rana from playing in the Twenty20, in which case we could bring him over to play Championship, Friends Provident and Pro40.

“If that is the case, we would bring him over so we, and him, could honour the final year of his contract.”

With Rana unlikely to play Twenty20, Regan and director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon could make a move for South African pace ace Morne Morkel, who was at Yorkshire for a brief spell last summer before tearing a hamstring.