Dwayne Smith has been backed to enhance his reputation as a fans’ favourite after becoming Sussex’s second overseas Twenty20 signing.

The West Indies all-rounder will make a popular return to Hove next month having helped the Sharks lift the Twenty20 Cup in 2009.

Coach Mark Robinson turned to Smith to join Scott Styris as Sussex’s overseas players after Australia’s John Hastings was forced to pull out due to injury last month.

Robinson said: “Dwayne is a match-winner in his own right so when John pulled out he was our No.1 target.

“He is popular with the whole club and the whole club will be happy when he walks back through the door with that big grin of his.

“Dwayne genuinely loves the club and there is a feel good factor about his return. We have got good memories with him and he has got good memories with us which can help.”

Smith is likely to miss the final group match of the competition and will also be unavailable for the quarter-final and finals day if Sussex get that far due to a clash with the Caribbean Premier League.

Robinson added: “That was the only thing that counted against him when we went for Hastings initially but the attraction of Dwayne is that he is someone who wants to play for us and is very, very popular with coaches, players and public.

“Ideally you would want someone to play the whole tournament but once Hastings pulled out there weren’t that many players available so the fact we had a bloke who we knew, was available and wanted to play for us meant we felt we it was worth that sacrifice.

“It depends where the fixtures fall for the Caribbean T20 but even if he misses the knockout stages we think we’ve got a bloke who can at least get us to a stage where we can qualify.”