Panesar to play Sri Lankan club cricket

Monty Panesar will spend a month in Sri Lanka attempting to regain confidence and recapture the form that made him one of the world's leading spin bowlers. Panesar will travel to Sri Lanka in early November, a month before England's begin their two-Test tour of India, to play for Bloomfield, one of Colombo's biggest and strongest clubs.

The decision was made jointly between Panesar, Peter Moores, the England coach, and David Parsons, England's former spin coach and now the performance director at Loughborough. It is believed Panesar initially wanted to play in India's Ranji Trophy but regulations prevented him from doing so, and he will be hoping the Sri Lankan Cricket Board settles a dispute with its first-class sides, which is threatening the start of the country's domestic season.

Panesar remains England's No 1 spinner and he is expected to be a pivotal figure in Kevin Pietersen's side on India's turning pitches. But there are many who feel his bowling is not advancing as quickly as it should. Last summer Shane Warne was damning in his assessment of Panesar, stating that the 26-year-old did not resemble a bowler who had played 33 Tests, but one that had played the same Test 33 times.

Panesar's Test figures – 114 wickets at an average of 31.95 – remain good but he has struggled on previous visits to Asia too, taking 13 wickets at an average of 55 on England tours of India and Sri Lanka.

"Going to play in Sri Lanka for a month prior to going to India is a great opportunity for him," said Moores, speaking at the renewal of the Sky Sports ECB coach education programme, which in the last two years has trained nearly 13,000 coaches. "He's been before and knows it will offer him tough conditions, physically tough conditions, against good players of spin. He hopes to learn and prepare for India, which is a short series. Monty's not played for England for a while as he wasn't involved in the one-day series against South Africa, he's now got the opportunity to get better."

Panesar is not the first England player to use the first-class system of another country to prepare for a tour. Last winter Stephen Harmison and Andrew Strauss spent time in South Africa and New Zealand before joining up with the Test side.

Moores revealed that he will allow England's centrally contracted players to play in next year's Indian Premier League. "We'd like to release the players for a period of time," Moores said. "There is no doubt that financially for a player it's lucrative. But with the Twenty20 World Cup coming up it would be a bonus to get our lads playing T20. Details are being finalised and should be tied down but our window is pretty small. We finish our Caribbean tour on 5 April and with the Sri Lanka series scheduled for early May, it won't be a big window. For a player to be released he'd first have to be offered a contract by IPL, but secondly he's got to be physically strong enough to do that. If not he won't be able to go."