Northants snap up Aussie batsman Sam Whiteman for Championship and One Day Cup stint

The 30-year-old left-hander will join the club ahead of their LV= Insurance County Championship Division One opener at Kent in early April, and will be available until at least the end of August.

The former Australia A international, who is also a wicket-keeper, is currently captain of Western Australia and will be available for the Steelbacks' One Day Cup campaign as well.

Whiteman, who is currently playing for Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League, has more than 80 first-class appearances under his belt, scoring a total of 4,625 runs at an average of 37.90.

Whiteman scored a career best 193 for Western Australia in their Sheffield Shield match with South Australia in November.

WA currently head the Sheffield Shield table ahead of the competition resuming in February, with Whiteman averaging 43.33 having scored 390 runs in total.

One of Whiteman's team-mates with WA is Matt Kelly, who spent a two-month stint with Northants at the beginning of last season, and during the current season he has been opening the batting with Australia Test player Cameron Bancroft.

In all he has compiled 10 first-class centuries and 24 half-centuries in a career spanning 10 years.

In 50-over cricket, Whiteman has hit 870 runs at an average of 23.51 in 48 matches, scoring six half-centuries with a top score of 79.

Born in Doncaster in south Yorkshire, Whiteman emigrated with his family to Australia at a young age, and played for Australia A between 2014 and 2016. He has yet to play for the senior Australia team.

Whiteman made his debut for Western Australia in 2012 and has been captain since November, 2021, while in the BBL he played for Perth Scorchers from 2013 to 2020 and was a team-mate of new Northants signing David Willey between 2015 and 2019.

He had to take a year out of the game in 2017 after badly fracturing his right index finger keeping wicket to fast bowler Mitchell Johnson in the BBL Final.

He made the switch from Perth to Sydney Thunder in 2021.

Whiteman is the second overseas signing to be confirmed by Northants ahead of the 2023 summer, with the other being another Aussie in Chris Lynn who is returning to the County Ground for the Vitality T20 Blast campaign.

Northants are expected to make one more signing for the duration of the Blast, with other short-term signings for Championship cricket set to be made across the summer.

That was something the club did in 2022, with Kelly, Ryan Rickelton, Lizaad Williams and Jimmy Neesham all making appearances as well as season-long signing Will Young.