He will join fellow Irishman George Dockrell at Taunton for the upcoming series of T20 matches.
Somerset have swooped to sign big hitting Irish batsman Kevin O’Brien for five of the forthcoming FLt20 matches, the first of which is against Warwickshire at the County Ground on Wednesday.
The 28 year old is best known for his 50 ball century for Ireland against England in March of last year, which is the fastest ever century scored in the World Cup.
O’Brien will team up with his fellow Irishman George Dockrell for the first of the FLt20s at the County Ground along with overseas signings Richard Levi and Albie Morkel. O’Brien is also a more than useful,medium pace bowler so will provide another option for skipper Alfonso Thomas.
Cricket Ireland has agreed to the release of Kevin O’Brien to Somerset County Cricket Club initially for the first five matches of the ECB FLT20 competition. Ireland coach Phil Simmons said “This is another great opportunity for Kevin to improve his knowledge and skills in the T20 format, which will know doubt help improve him further as a player and help prepare him for the upcoming T20 Internationals against Bangladesh in July, South Africa ‘A’ in August which all build up to the ICC World T20 in Sri Lanka this September.”
Somerset Director of Cricket Brian Rose said: “Kevin is a very attractive batsman who can score his runs very quickly and will add to our already exciting batting line up.”
“He will join overseas players Richard Levi and Albie Morkel in the team to face Warwickshire in our opening FLt20 game on Wednesday.”
Kevin spent last summer’s T20 campaign at Gloucestershire, where he shined with the quickest hundred in English cricket last summer, a stunning 44-ball effort against Middlesex that helped Glocestershire post a county record 254.
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