Jon Lewis has been appointed as Sussex’s fast bowling coach after deciding to retire from first-class cricket.

Lewis was released by Sussex at the end of last season and despite offers to continue his glittering 20-year career elsewhere has opted to hang up his boots at the age of 39 and move into coaching.

Sussex were keen to retain the services of a player with such extensive experience at both domestic and international level with the club’s committee releasing the funds to add him to the coaching staff.

Lewis’s role will be to work with Sussex’s exciting crop of senior fast bowlers while also helping to develop the next generation of homegrown seamers through the academy at Hove.

Lewis said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people that have been a part of my life as a professional cricketer. Especially those at Gloucestershire and England.

“I feel very privileged that I was able to have fulfilled a career as a professional player for over twenty years and able to gain my coaching qualifications and experience alongside.

“I am now very excited to make the seamless transition from a player into a coach at a very welcoming and successful club.

“I am looking forward to becoming part of and complimenting the already successful existing coaching team. It gives me great pleasure to be given the opportunity of developing and maximising the success of the existing bowling attack and the next crop of exciting young bowlers at Sussex. I will be grabbing the challenge wholeheartedly.”

Lewis played one Test for England as well as 13 ODIs and two Twenty20 internationals while helping Gloucestershire win seven trophies during his 16 seasons with the county.

He spent a disappointing two years at Surrey after leaving Gloucestershire in 2011 and his final season at Sussex was blighted by injuries.

In total he took 849 wickets in 251 first class games having made his debut for Gloucestershire in 1995.

Sussex coach Mark Robinson : “Firstly we would like to congratulate Jon on what has been a fantastic playing career. He has been consistently one of the stand out bowlers in the County Championship and played a leading role in winning many a one-day trophy with Gloucestershire. He represented his country with distinction and was a fierce competitor that you had to respect.

“When Jon was with us last year it became very apparent he was born to coach and instantly gained the respect of all the players within the squad. Jon’s role is to oversee and develop the current bowlers that we have and also nurture the younger bowlers in our youth system so in time we will constantly have a depth of seamers at the disposal of the first team.”