Essex cricket captain Ronnie Irani is resigned to losing Danny Law for next season.

The 25-year-old former England under-19 all-rounder is poised to leave Essex to join Second Division Durham on a two-year contract.

Law's impending departure comes amid further speculation that Essex are showing interest in unsettled Middlesex and England duo Mark Ramprakash and Phil Tufnell.

Law has already had talks with Durham, who are prepared to offer him a longer contract than Essex.

It is understood his move will be signed and sealed within the next day or so.

Irani said yesterday (Monday): "Danny has asked to be released and as far as Keith Fletcher and myself are concerned if he doesn't want to play for Essex he can go.

"We didn't want to lose him. Essex have spent a lot of money on Danny's development and he still has a year of his contract to run."

Law, who will move to Durham as a list one player, joined Essex from Sussex in 1997 and great things were expected of him.

In 52 First Class matches he has scored just under 1,500 runs at an average of around 19 with 99 wickets at a cost of 35 runs each.

Ironically, some of Law's best performances have been against Durham.

He returned figures of 5-33 against the northern county when with Sussex in 1996 and claimed another five-wicket haul, including a hat-trick, for Essex at Chester-le-Street two years later.

Law's highest limited overs score also came against Durham - 82 at Chelmsford in 1997.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.