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Warwickshire have signed England T20 paceman Richard Gleeson following his end-of-season release by Lancashire.
Gleeson, 36, has signed a contract to play all the group games in the T20 Blast for the Birmingham Bears – as well as Finals Day, if they make it.
“It adds another quality, proven bowler to our T20 squad,” said Warwickshire performance director Gavin Larsen.
“He offers a skill-set that will be vital, alongside Hassan Ali, at both ends of the innings.”
Gleeson, currently playing in the United Arab Emirates, should make his Bears debut against Notts on 1 June at Edgbaston, where he made a dramatic England T20 debut at the age of 34 in July 2022.
In the space of just four balls, he had Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant both caught behind by Jos Buttler, then claimed the prize wicket of Virat Kohli.
“It’s somewhere that’s close to my heart after making my England debut there,” he said. “I can’t wait to get out in front of that home crowd again, take a few poles and win some games.”
Gleeson’s journey back to Edgbaston
After playing club cricket for his home-town club Blackpool alongside five years at Minor Counties level with Cumberland, Gleeson did not play first-class cricket until he was 27, when he signed for Northamptonshire in 2015.
He impressed at Wantage Road over the next three summers, helping Northants reach Finals Day, which he missed because of injury, before signing for Lancashire at the back end of the 2018 season.
He took 47 County Championship wickets to help Lancashire win promotion back to Division One in 2019 – but has since only only played only more red-ball game, having had injury issues.
He signed a T20-only deal as Lancashire reached the 2022 Blast final, claiming 25 scalps to end up as leading wicket-taker.
That earned his England call and he has gone on to win five more caps, as well as being chosen as travelling reserve for Buttler’s victorious T20 World Cup campaign.
He missed the 2023 Blast with a wrist injury but was fit enough to return in time for the Men’s Hundred when he was in the Manchester Originals side beaten in the final at Lord’s by the Oval Invincibles.
After playing for Delhi Bulls in the Abu Dhabi T10 before Christmas, he made three winning appearances for Durban’s Super Giants in South Africa T20 earlier this month before moving on to the Persian Gulf to play in the International League.
By Ged Scott
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