Having secured the services of senior players David Sales, Rob White and Stephen Peters last week, attention has now turned to the other nine members of the Wantage Road staff whose current contracts expire at the end of this summer.

And England star Panesar is one of those who has already been offered a new deal.

"It's difficult with Monty to get the time to sit down with him," head coach David Capel explained.

"He's obviously a very busy man and is concentrating on the Test matches for much of the time.

"But he's had an offer on the table for a while and we've had discussions with his manager.

"He's very happy with things here. He wanted to see certain things in place which we have done.

"Now, hopefully, it's just a case of sitting down to complete things.

"We've been proactive in trying to get certain players signed up as early as possible – as our supporters would want us to.

"It is a common-sense thing to make the early moves and get players like David Sales signed up.

"But, likewise, there is still a heck of a lot of cricket to be played and everything's up for grabs.

"The Second XI have the majority of their programme left to be played and the first team have still got nine first-class matches – as well as a great deal of one-day games – left.

"There are a couple of players who have just been offered new deals and they need time to think it over.

"And there is plenty to be played for yet.

"But we need to see how a few people perform over the rest of the season."