Yorkshire sign Gibbs for Twenty20

Yorkshire have signed South African batsman Herschelle Gibbs as their second overseas player for the coming season's Friends Provident Twenty20 competition.

Gibbs will join up with the Yorkshire squad before the game against Durham Dynamos on June 10 and will be available to play in all of Yorkshire's Twenty20 matches from then on.

"I've always enjoyed playing cricket in the UK and have very good memories of Headingley as I got my first World Cup hundred there in 1999," Gibbs told Yorkshire Radio. "I'm really looking forward to playing over there and I'll hopefully help to lead the troops towards some sort of success.

"I think Twenty20 cricket is consistently the flavour of the month with regards to spectators, and the following worldwide has grown enormously over the last few years," he added. "I'm still yet to get a hundred in Twenty20 cricket and I did promise myself that I'd get at least a few before I call it quits one day.

"There are a lot of challenges that I'd still like to achieve and overcome, and I'm probably enjoying my cricket now more than ever before, so I'm really looking forward to the challenge."

Gibbs, who will have turned 36 by the beginning of the season, is a veteran of 90 Tests and 246 ODIs, and also has extensive experience in Twenty20 cricket, with 1627 runs in the format.

He will join Ryan Harris, the Queensland and Australia allrounder who is also his Deccan Chargers teammate in the IPL, at the county, who have also signed Daryl Tuffey as early season cover for Harris.

"Herschelle will add power, runs and experience to our batting line-up in this year's T20 competition and he is also a fine fielder," added Martyn Moxon, Yorskhire's Director of Professional Cricket.

"He's a vastly experienced international cricketer with the ability to win matches on his own if he hits his best form. I'm looking forward to seeing him play for Yorkshire this year and I'm sure our members and supporters will enjoy Herschelle's style of cricket too."