Northamptonshire sign Wayne Parnell as overseas player for entire season

He will be available throughout the season and is set to feature in the County Championship, T20 Blast and Royal London Cup

Northamptonshire have signed South African left-arm seamer Wayne Parnell as an overseas player for the duration of the 2021 season.

He will be available throughout the season and is set to feature in the County Championship, T20 Blast and Royal London Cup.

Having last represented his country in 2017, Parnell signed a Kolpak deal with Worcestershire at the end of the 2018 season but didn’t feature in the coronavirus-delayed 2020 campaign.

Following the end of the United Kingdom’s transition period with the European Union and the subsequent invalidation of Kolpak registrations, Parnell has returned to overseas status.

“I am delighted to be joining Northants for the 2021 season across all formats,” he said. “I love county cricket and I hope I can contribute to the club being successful on all fronts.

“It’s an exciting squad with a really nice mix of youth and experience and I’m particularly looking forward to linking up with some old teammates in Richard Levi and Chris Liddle who is now the bowling coach.”

The club’s head coach, David Ripley, added that the opportunity to tie down Parnell, 31, for the duration of 2021 meant reassessing other overseas plans. He will join Afghanistan allrounder Mohammad Nabi as the county’s second overseas player for the Blast.

“We started the winter looking for someone who could perhaps play some Championship cricket at the start and then have a different player to support Nabi for the T20s,” he said.

“We had one or two options there but when Wayne [Parnell] came into the picture we felt he could offer a real all-round contribution for us.”

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