McCullum, Gayle and Dilshan among the star attractions...
Wednesday 8 April 2015 09:27, UK
World Cup superstars Brendon McCullum, Kumar Sangakkara and Chris Gayle headline a strong list of overseas signings for the 2015 county cricket season, but who else has been added to your team's squad and when and where can you expect to see them?
Here's our guide to the biggest names on the county circuit this summer...
At his blistering best at the top of the order for New Zealand throughout the World Cup, Brendon McCullum joins T20 Blast holders, Birmingham Bears, in a seven-match deal.
Chris Gayle - scorer of the first World Cup double ton - will turn out in one game fewer for Somerset, having penned a six-match deal.
Glenn Maxwell adds further firepower to Yorkshire's T20 squad, and the County Champions have only got stronger in the four-day format, with Cheteshar Pujara (early season), Aaron Finch (mid-season) and Kane Williamson (late season) bolstering their bid for back-to-back titles.
Nottinghamshire will aim to prevent that with some star signings of their own, with Vernon Philander and Ben Hilfenhaus - who will tag in for each other midway through the summer - added to their bowling resources.
And look out for the T20 clashes between Surrey and Sussex with legendary (former) Sri Lanka team-mates, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, facing off against each-other.
Sangakkara is available all year for Surrey - linking up with Kevin Pietersen in a formidable middle-order at The Oval - while Jayawardene is taking up residence on the south coast for the first half of the T20 Blast.
Plus, another Sri Lanka veteran, Tillakaratne Dilshan, will turn out for Derbyshire, firstly in June and then in August and September.
Derbyshire, though, will not see as much of Martin Guptill - the top run scorer in the 2015 World Cup - as they'd hoped, with the batsman having been recalled to New Zealand's Test squad for their tour of England.
New Zealand all-rounder, Corey Anderson, adds to the star power on show in this year's T20 Blast. He joins Gayle at Somerset, as does Sohail Tanvir, with the Pakistan left-armer playing in the first half of the tournament until Anderson arrives.
There is sure to be mayhem in the midlands with Darren Sammy at Nottinghamshire, Shahid Afridi at Northamptonshire and Grant Elliott at Leicestershire intermittently throughout the summer-long competition.
Plus, proven T20 performers with the ball, Yasir Arafat and Shaun Tait, take up residence at Hampshire and Essex respectively. Australian all-rounder, Moises Henriques is at Surrey, and New Zealand opener, Colin Munro at Worcestershire, to complete an impressive looking line-up.
With 63 wickets in just nine games as Worcestershire won promotion to Division One in 2014, Saeed Ajmal will be vital to the New Road club if they are to avoid falling straight back down to the second tier.
The Pakistan twirler will arrive later in the season with Sri Lanka spinner Sachithra Senanayake deputising until then.
Steve Magoffin and Jesse Ryder are two others of huge importance to their counties.
Australian Magoffin led the Division One wicket-taking table in 2014 with 72 scalps for Sussex, the kind of consistent performances we have grown to expect from the seamer down in Hove.
We weren't expecting 44 wickets at 18.09 apiece for Ryder, though, with the New Zealander primarily known for his batting.
Ryder's countryman, off-spinner Jeetan Patel, has been a consistent performer for Warwickshire since 2009 and should have another impactful season, while Abdur Rehman will hope for similar success at Somerset to his first spell in 2012 when the left-arm spinner took 27 wickets in four matches.
Australian all-rounder John Hastings also did well with the ball in eight appearances for Durham last year, with 37 wickets at an average of 21.94, and he will be charged with taking more scalps in Chester-le-Street, just as South Africa quick Rory Kleinveldt will at Northants.
Jacques Rudolph, meanwhile, will want to perform better than his first showing for Glamorgan, where despite hitting two tons, he averaged only 31.74.
Yes, plenty. Flying in from Australia are Jackson Bird (Hampshire), Clint McKay (Leicestershire), Michael Klinger (Gloucestershire) and, for the T20 Blast only, Nathan Rimmington (Derbyshire).
Plus, Brendan Taylor, heads a strong-looking list of Kolpak players. The Zimbabwe World Cup star has joined Nottinghamshire; recently retired South Africa Test batsman, Alviro Petersen teams up with Lancashire, while two more Proteas, Colin Ingram and Richard Levi, are with Glamorgan and Northamptonshire respectively.
West Indies speedster Fidel Edwards joins Hampshire midway through the season, while New Zealand’s James Franklin arrives at Middlesex for the whole summer and Netherlands' Tom Cooper has landed in Somerset.
Mark Cosgrove joins Leicestershire as captain and his fellow Australian, Peter Hanscomb, arrives in Gloucestershire after some impressive form back home, including a century for the Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash.
But Lancashire and Middlesex are seeking replacements for Peter Siddle and Adam Voges respectively, with the pair called up to Australia's squad to firstly tour West Indies and then tackle England in the Ashes.
