Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket Mick Newell says he has already begun the search for a new opener after it was announced that Jason Gallian has signed for Essex.

The 36-year-old former England international, whose Notts contract expired at the end of this season, turned down a new deal at Trent Bridge to make the move to Chelmsford.

Newell said: “Clearly there is a hole at the top of the order which needs to be filled and we have already begun to look around for a replacement.”

Gallian has scored more than 8,000 first-class runs in his 10 years with Notts, with 24 hundreds, and was captain from 1998 to 2004.

He led Notts to a double promotion in his final year as skipper and then produced 1,220 first-class runs in their Championship winning season of 2005 - entering the record books after managing to be run out twice on 199.

Newell added: “Jason has done a fantastic job for us in the last decade as both a player and a captain.

“He has been responsible for many of the successes we have had in that time. We all wish him the very best for the rest of his career.”