South African Vernon Philander signs a short county deal with Sussex

Sussex has signed South Africa international Vernon Philander for the first half of the 2017 county season, advancing his reputation as one of the overseas nomads of the county circuit. The 31-year-old, who has played 37 Test matches and taken 142 wickets Tests at an average of 22.21, will hope to use this stint to polish his skills ahead of South Africa’s Test series against England next summer.  Philander is set to play Sussex’s first six Specsavers County Championship matches, and the entire group stage of the Royal London One-Day Cup tournament.

I’m really looking forward to getting to Hove and playing for Sussex for the first couple of months of the English season,” said Philander, who most recently played a leading role in the Proteas’ impressive 2-1 test series win over Australia.

“Although I haven’t come up against Sussex much in my time playing in England, I’ve always heard good things about the club and set-up.

“Hopefully I can put in some good performances to help the team in both red (County Championship) and white ball (one day) cricket and pass on my experience to some of the younger players who I’ve heard such positive reports about,” added Philander, who decimated Australia’s top order in the second test with figures of 5-21 in the first innings.

Mark Davis, Sussex head coach, called it a major boost.

“I am thrilled to have Vernon joining us for the first two months of the season. He is one of the leading bowlers in world cricket and to have him bowling in English conditions is a very exciting prospect from the club,” said Davis.

“His international experience with both bat and ball will be invaluable to our young players and we are looking forward to him joining us in April.”

The upcoming stint with Sussex will be Philander’s fifth county apart from short-term deals at Middlesex in 2008, Somerset in 2012, Kent in 2013 and Nottinghamshire in 2015. Overall, he has taken only 49 first-class wickets at 26.98 in those four appearances with his best season so far being the one with Somerset in 2012 where he took 23 wickets.