Martin van Jaarsveld said his passion for the game was reignited by a successful season in South Africa © Getty Images Enlarge

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Martin van Jaarsveld, the former South Africa batsman, has signed for Glamorgan to play in the Friends Life t20. The move sees him return to county cricket after deciding to cancel his deal with Leicestershire in November to return to South Africa.

He is a British passport holder so Glamorgan could still recruit a second overseas player for the FLt20. The county's main overseas signing for 2012 and 2013, Australia batsman Marcus North, will arrive this week after remaining in his home country for the birth of his second child. He is also recovering from a finger injury that forced him out of the end of the Australian season.

Van Jaarsveld, 37, played for seven years at Kent, scoring 3,546 List A runs and 1,585 T20 runs. He was released at the end of the 2011 season and had agreed to join Leicestershire before his U-turn.

His decision to return to England was inspired by his successful season with the Titans in South Africa, who are coached by former Glamorgan director of cricket Matthew Maynard. He scored 316 at 28.72 to help his side to the T20 title. "This has re-ignited my passion in the game," van Jaarsveld said.

Glamorgan's head of elite development, Matthew Mott, said: ""Martin is an experienced, quality cricketer and his record speaks for itself. We have been looking for genuine match-winners to make us a more potent force and, off the back of a very successful season in South Africa with the Titans, Martin fits the bill."

Glamorgan's drastic change of regime during the 2010-11 close season had the main intention of improving their fortunes in one-day cricket. Maynard and captain Jamie Dalrymple both left the club in a winter of discontent. Mott and Colin Metson were installed in a new coaching set-up but results last season suggested little had changed. Glamorgan finished seventh in the south group of the FLt20 and fifth in group C of the CB40.