Caribbean trip offers Beer a chance

Will Beer, the Sussex legspinner, will return from club cricket in Australia to join Sussex's trip to the Caribbean T20 tournament. The 10-team competition, also featuring Canada and Netherlands, takes place in January.

Having played five times for England Under-19s, Beer has been attending the Darren Lehmann cricket academy and playing grade cricket for Port Adelaide. He will fly home and join the Sussex squad with batsman Matt Machan, who has been playing for Dandenong CC in Melbourne.

Beer, 23, is looking to revive his career. He was a regular in the Sussex one-day and Twenty20 sides in 2009 - when they won the Friends Life t20 - and in 2010 but only made three appearances last season.

He will be part of a 13-man squad captained by Michael Yardy although big-names are missing. Matt Prior and Monty Panesar will be in UAE on England duty, Luke Wright will be playing for Melbourne Stars in Australia's Twenty20 Big Bash, while Ed Joyce and Murray Goodwin are also absent.

Sussex will play Netherlands, Jamaica, Combined Campuses and Colleges and Barbados in trying to qualify for the knockout stages.

Professional cricket manager Mark Robinson said it was an exciting opportunity for his squad. "For the less experienced players to play alongside some more senior colleagues will not only be good for them but also allow us to see how well they are developing."

Sussex squad Michael Yardy (capt), Will Adkin, Amjad Khan, James Anyon, Will Beer, Ben Brown, Joe Gatting, Naveed Arif, Andrew Hodd, Chris Liddle, Matt Machan, Chris Nash, Kirk Wernars