Ryan Sidebottom rejoins Yorkshire

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Ryan Sidebottom rejoins Yorkshire

32-year-old left-arm paceman Ryan Sidebottom has signed a 3-year contract to return to Yorkshire County Cricket Club next summer.

Ryan left Yorkshire in 2004 when he moved to Nottinghamshire where he was a key part of their Championship winning sides of 2005 and 2010.

He made his first-class debut for Yorkshire in 1997 and helped the White Rose County win the 2001 Championship and the 2002 C&G Trophy. Since then the 6 foot 4 inch paceman has been one of the most consistent bowlers on the county circuit in all forms of cricket.

Ryan made his England Test debut in 2001 against Pakistan, but after a wicketless performance and only two ODIs against Zimbabwe he returned to county cricket and seemed destined to be a one Test cap wonder like his father, Arnie. But in 2007 he was recalled to England's attack and responded with 8 wickets against West Indies at Headingley Carnegie and quickly developed into a key member of the England line-up.

He was Man of the Series as England won the one-day tournament in Sri Lanka and then in New Zealand took 24 wickets at 17.08, including 7-47 in the final Test in Napier. He was England's Player of the Year in 2008 and played a crucial role in England’s triumph in the 2010 World Twenty20.

The Huddersfield-born seamer retired from international cricket in September 2010 shortly after celebrating Nottinghamshire’s LV= County Championship title success. In the final Championship match of the season at Old Trafford he crucially helped guide Nottinghamshire beyond 400 to secure a crucial final bonus point, before claiming the wicket of Karl Brown to help the county to claim the three wickets they needed to win the title for the first time since 2005.

In total, Ryan has played 22 Tests claiming 79 wickets at 28.24, 25 One-Day Internationals taking 29 wickets and 18 Twenty20s for England in an international career that spanned nine years.

Ryan Sidebottom said: “I have enjoyed my time at Trent Bridge and with England enormously, but I’m a Yorkshire lad and the opportunity to return to Headingley Carnegie to end my career was something I couldn’t ignore. The Yorkshire side has some real quality and under Martyn Moxon and Andrew Gale made real strides forward. I want to give the county everything I can over the next three years and if we can reward the Yorkshire public with a trophy or two that would be fantastic.”

Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire’s Director of Professional Cricket, said: “I am delighted that Ryan has chosen Yorkshire ahead of many other interested counties. I think that proves Ryan’s Yorkshire pride in that he wants to return to Headingley Carnegie in 2011 and add his experience and talent to our bowling attack. He provides us with proven consistency and wicket-taking ability at county level and will provide Andrew Gale with a senior bowler of real quality to turn to next season.”