Surrey open the door to signing of banned Australian pair Steve Smith and David Warner

'If they are in the right mental state to play cricket and the ECB will have to allow it to start with, then we'd be mad not to look at some of the world's best players potentially playing.'

Surrey are open to bringing disgraced Australia stars Steve Smith or David Warner to the County Championship, should the ECB sign off on the banned pair appearing in English cricket.

Smith and Warner were banned by Cricket Australia for their past in the ball-tampering scandal that rocked cricket during the recent tour of South Africa, but those bans only cover Australian international and domestic cricket.

For either to play county cricket would need ECB approval, but Surrey head coach Michael Di Venuto is a former batting coach with the Australian national team and he admitted he would be "mad" not to consider adding players of such talent to his squad.

"From an Australian perspective, it is probably important that they play a bit of cricket at some stage," Di Venuto said. "I don't know if they are allowed to play in this competition. I know what it states in their sanctions that they can't play domestic cricket in Australia.

"If they are in the right mental state to play cricket and the ECB will have to allow it to start with, then we'd be mad not to look at some of the world's best players potentially playing."

Smith and Warner lost their lucrative IPL contracts on the back of their suspensions while co-conspirator Cameron Bancroft saw his deal to play for Somerset this summer torn up.

Surrey will have space for an overseas player when Dean Elgar, who is only signed up for the first two months of the season, joins up with South Africa for the series with Sri Lanka.

Director of Cricket Alec Stewart also secured the signing of former Protea Morne Morkel this winter, with the towering seamer joining on a Kolpak contract.