Sussex sign Australian all-rounder Hastings

The 27-year-old combines his right-arm, fast-medium bowling with strong lower-order batting and has represented his country in all three versions of the game.

He made his Test debut against South Africa in Perth during the winter, to add to his three T20 International appearances and 11 ODI matches and has most recently been playing for Australia A in an unofficial ODI series with England Lions.

Hastings has represented several teams in domestic T20 tournaments, including Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash, who can also name Sussex’s Luke Wright amongst their squad.

Hastings said: “I’m really looking forward to getting over to Sussex and joining up with the Sharks, as well as meeting everyone at the club. I can’t wait for the opportunity to help the team in going one step further this season.

“It has always been a huge goal of mine to play in an English summer, and I couldn’t be happier about my upcoming time at Sussex.”

Sussex’s professional cricket manager Mark Robinson said: “We’re delighted to have John on board. Both Matt (Prior) and Luke (Wright) have played with him during the Big Bash and both pushed hard for us to approach John for this year’s competition.

“He is a skilful bowler and a hard-hitting lower order batter, with a great reputation as a person and should be a perfect fit for the club”.

The Sharks have already confirmed the services of Scott Styris for the shortest format of the game in which they reached the semi-final last season.