Sussex snap up Styris for T20

English county cricket's love affair with Scott Styris shows no sign of abating. He is set to play for his fourth English first-class county after Sussex's announcement that he has signed for the whole of their Friends Life t20 campaign this summer.

Sussex's cricket manager Mark Robinson said: "Scott has been a real thorn in our side in the last couple of years for Essex and we are really pleased he has decided to join us. We have lacked someone who is able to come in during the middle overs and be able to clear the ropes. Scott, as we've seen to our cost, is proven at doing this."

Styris, 36, retired from international cricket soon after the 2011 World Cup, ending a New Zealand career that spanned 188 ODIs and 31 Twenty20 internationals. He also played 29 Tests, the last of them in 2007.

He has become a prime example of those seasoned players whose careers have been prolonged by T20, which is no longer regarded as purely a young man's game. He represented Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2011 and Sussex's signing confirms that he remains much in demand for England's T20 tournament, in which he has already represented Durham, Middlesex and Essex.