Former England all-rounder Ravi Bopara has consented to join Sussex to the 2020 season – after turning down a new contract at Essex.
The Bopara that is 34-year-old states hes expecting to keep on playing for another 10 decades.
Bopara had a lengthy association with Essex, helping them to win Vitality T20 Blast and the County Championship this year.
Essex affirmed Bopara, who made his debut in 2002, rejecteda new and improved contract but added,the club wish him the very best of luck in his future playing career.
Bopara told the official Sussex website:I want to thank Sussex with this opportunity.
It is an excellent chance to play below a respected and acknowledged coach such as Jason Gillespie and with a rather powerful and talented team of players, lots of whom will undoubtedly go on to receive international honours.
On a personal note, Ive got a burning desire to achieve more things in this superb game.
I will now place a greater emphasis on T20 cricket. Im stronger and fitter than I have ever been playing with my cricket.
I want to emphasise that Im not giving up red-ball cricket however that I will, for the time being, play less of it to find time in the calendar year to up-skill at T20 and take my game to a new level since I still have a drive to play international cricket.
Here is to the future and hopefully another decade of joyful and successful times.
Bopara has 6,646 runs in 331 T20 looks, making him the of all time at the format.
An alternate to Division Two facet Sussex seems set to allow the all-rounder the opportunity to get involved in T20 competitions around the world.
Sussex head coach Gillespie included:Im really, really enthusiastic about having Ravi Bopara join us in Sussex.
it is a small coup for us to be perfectly fair: what a wonderful player Ravi has been for England and Essex for a long, long time.
His wisdom and experience will be invaluable in our dressing room.
Hes a great lad and we are very thankful that Ravi has made a decision to join us. Coaches and players are eager to work together with him and learn from him.
Within this seasons Vitality Blast, Bopara was a batting average of 48.5 and a strike-rate of over 162. He also took 12 wickets and has been appointed the T20 participant of the year of Essex.
