Gough and Lawson for Maharashtra

I just read that Maharashtra is considering taking on Jermaine Lawson and/or Darren Gough as professionals for the 2006-07 season. Maharashtra has, of late, shown a tendency to look for talent outside its Cricketing borders. Besides wooing players from Mumbai (Sairaj Bahutule and Amol Muzumdar) and Munaf Patel from Gujarat, Maharashtra has also appointed the Aussie, Darren Holder as the coaching director of the team.
This is a huge step, not just financially but also strategically, though I'm not sure of its efficacy. With Munaf Patel on India duty for most of the season, Maharashtra really lacks genuine fast bowling options. Iqbal Siddiqui is past his peak and the others are - let's face it - not anywhere near being in the same league. I guess bringing on professionals from abroad could help in improving the fast bowling standards in Maharashtra provided the professionals are made to get involved in outreach programmes that focus on developing talent in the hinterlands. God knows there's plenty of untapped talent there.
Some years ago, when I was playing for PYC club in the Pune local league, we had a player, Kailash Hazare, come from one of the internal districts of Maharashtra. He was as quick as anything I have seen and could very well have gone on to better things, but for some reason, he didn't show up to play the following season. While I can't be sure, I feel his absence was because there was no one to guide him in terms of taking up Cricket as a career. I can name numerous such examples. In fact, every time I went on a Cricket tour to the interiors, I was startled at the talent there. These kids had a quick eye and nimber feet, though their techniques weren't always up to scratch and the bowlers were talented and enthusiastic...but raw. Well, I just hope that the Maharashtra Cricket Association does not lose sight of the real aim of taking on these foreign professionals, viz. creating a paradigm of spotting fast bowling talent and exposing it to international talent so they realise where they stand in the food chain and pick up some useful tips from players who have proven themselves at the international level.