Afridi joins South Australia for Twenty20

South Australia have signed Shahid Afridi for the Twenty20 Big Bash this summer as a replacement for the spinner Ajantha Mendis. The Redbacks had announced the recruitment of Mendis in July but he is now unavailable due to Sri Lanka's planned tri-series with India and Bangladesh in January.

"It is a big opportunity and will help me gear up for next year's one-day internationals against Australia and then in the World Twenty20 where we have to defend our title," Afridi told AFP. "I have heard that West Indian Kieron Pollard will also play in the Twenty20 tournament in Australia, so it will be very exciting and I hope that I am able to entertain the Australian crowd."

South Australia's Big Bash campaign begins on December 29, when Pakistan will be involved in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. However, Afridi has not played Test cricket since 2006 and is not expected to feature in their Test squad, which would leave him free to take part in the majority of the Twenty20 competition. "For the time being I want to concentrate on one-dayers and Twenty20 internationals to improve myself so that we can defend our World Twenty20 title successfully," Afridi said.

"He's a very dynamic hitter," Jamie Cox, South Australia's high performance manager said. "It's probably more his bowling that we're really keen on. He's become a fantastic legspin bowler over the past four or five years, he's really matured as a bowler. That's probably the greatest opportunity for us with three home games particularly, to replace a very good world spinner with another one."

Afridi should be a valuable Twenty20 asset for South Australia; he was the player of the tournament at the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 and averages 21.05 with the bat and 15.73 with the ball from his 24 Twenty20 internationals. Other international signings for the Big Bash include Chris Gayle (Western Australia) and Dwayne Bravo (Victoria).

Lasith Malinga was to join Tasmania and Victoria had attracted Muttiah Muralitharan but both men are likely to be unavailable for the same reason as Mendis. The West Indies allrounder Kieron Pollard is on New South Wales' radar and the states have until Christmas Eve to confirm up to two international recruits.