3:00pm Thursday 11th March 2010
By Mike Legg
Sussex are planning for more glory in the Twenty20 Cup after signing Sri Lankan Tillekeratne Dilshan.
Dilshan, with his trademark ‘Dilscoop’ shot, has been recruited specifically for the Twenty20 campaign.
Sussex won the cup for the first time last year and coach Mark Robinson said: “With that bit of luck always required, I feel our 2010 squad can emulate our 2009 Twenty20 success.”
Dilshan took last year’s Twenty20 World Cup by storm.
The 33-year-old scored 317 runs at an average of 52.38 and won the player of the tournament award after powering Sir Lanka to a Lord’s final against Pakistan.
Robinson said: “He’s a big name and a marquee signing, which is exciting.
“We wanted to get someone who we could rely on to get some runs. He is proven as a player.
“He was the star player of the last Twenty20 World Cup, he has done it in the IPL and I was lucky enough to see him play in New Zealand and he did really well there.
“It is exciting when you can bring a player of his calibre to the club.
“He is a crowd-pleaser and a player you would pay to come and see.
“He has invented a couple of shots of his own and ideally we wanted somebody with the potential to win a game by themself with their own skill.”
Robinson added: “With Yasir Arafat likely to have Pakistan commitments and Dwayne Smith with the West Indies, the signing of one of the world’s leading batsmen gives us some exciting options.
“We want our main players to have genuine match-winning ability and we believe we have that with Dilshan, Yasir and Dwayne.”
Dilsham is also an electric fielder, can keep wicket and bowls useful off-spin.
The right-handed bat was signed by the Delhi Daredevils for the inaugural IPL in 2008 and is more recently famous for inventing an astonishing flick-shot over his head, which has since become known as the ‘The Dilscoop’.
Dilshan is a high-calibre signing and has played 60 Test matches for Sri Lanka and scored 11 hundreds.
He has played 172 one day internationals with a top score of 160 and taken 48 wickets.
Sussex start their defence of the Twenty20 Cup with a home match against Somerset on June 1.
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