Styris returns to Sussex for t20

Sussex have re-signed Scott Styris as an overseas player for the 2013 Friends Life t20 season.

Styris, the 37-year-old former New Zealand international, who has previously had spells in county cricket with Middlesex, Durham and Essex, enjoyed an impressive season with Sussex in 2012. Most eye-catching was the 37-ball century against Gloucestershire in the quarter-final which included five fours and nine sixes and equalled the third fastest century in global Twenty20 cricket. The innings not only won Styris the Walter Lawrence Trophy for the fastest century in an English season, but helped Sussex reach T20 finals day.

Styris 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. Since then he has become one of the first T20 specialists, though he has continued to play the occasional List A game. He has represented sides in the IPL, the Bangladesh Premier League, the Sri Lanka Premier League and in English and New Zealand domestic T20 competitions.

"I'm delighted to sign this contract with Sussex," Styris said. "I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the team this year and feel we have unfinished business in this competition. I want to contribute next season so we can go all the way to securing the silverware."

"We are all delighted at the prospect of having Scott back," Mark Robinson, the Sussex cricket manager, said. "His performances on and off the pitch obviously made him not only a crowd favourite but one within the whole club."