Sussex sign Mason Crane and Aaron Beard for one-month loans

The Hampshire leg-spinner and Essex seamer are available for the LV= Insurance County Championship clash against Durham

Hampshire spinner Mason Crane and Aaron Beard of Essex have joined Sussex on a one-month loan deal.

Both players go straight into the squad to face Durham in the LV= Insurance County Championship clash at Chester-le-Street starting on Thursday (April 28).

Their spells also cover the Championship matches against Middlesex and Leicestershire, as well as the four-day New Zealand tour match.

One-time England Test player Crane has feature in only one of Hants' opening three matches, finishing with match figures of 0 for 108 against Kent during the third round of matches.

Beard, 24, meanwhile hasn't played a first-class match for Essex since the Bob Willis Trophy final in 2020.

^{Ian Salisbury is badly in need of fresh faces (Getty Images)}

The pair help bolster a depleted Sussex attack which is without Ollie Robinson Steven Finn, Jack Carson, Jofra Archer, Fynn Hudson-Prentice, George Garton and Dan Ibrahim.

Grant Stewart, signed on loan from Kent, has also been recalled after just one game following injury to Jackson Bird.

Head coach Ian Salisbury said: "I have worked with both Mason and Aaron when I coached them for England u17s and u19s, so I know their qualities as people and cricketers.

"I am looking forward to working with both of them again and I know they will fit in easily with the group."

The Hove club are winless after three rounds of the Championship, with defeats to Nottinghamshire and Worcestershire sandwiching the draw with Derbyshire, leaving them bottom of Division Two.

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