Banned Bancroft signs with new English county club

Banned Australian cricketer Cameron Bancroft has signed on with Durham for the 2019 English county season.

The opening batsman, who was found guilty of ball tampering in March and suspended by Cricket Australia for nine months, was announced by the club on Friday.

The move comes after the 25-year-old was dumped by Somerset ahead of the 2018 county season following his transgression in South Africa.

Bancroft will be available to Durham in all formats for the entire 2019 campaign – unless he wins back his Test spot for the Ashes, which will be played in August and September next year.

“I am excited to join Durham for the 2019 county season,” he said.

“I am grateful for the opportunity and I can’t wait to get over and make an impact with Durham.”

Bancroft will not enter the county season with no cricket under his belt.

His ban – three months shorter than the suspensions handed down to former Australian captain Steve Smith and tampering architect David Warner – expires in December, leaving open a return to the Big Bash with the Perth Scorchers and Sheffield Shield with Western Australia.

“Cameron provides us with a very talented overseas signing who can bulk up our batting line up and help us compete for silverware,” head coach John Lewis said.

“Tom Latham has done a great job for us over the past two seasons but we anticipate Tom being unavailable due to the World Cup in 2019, therefore we were delighted to be able to bring Cameron in.

“Cameron is a talented top order batsman and a great talent across all formats, he has the appetite and temperament for scoring big runs.”

Bancroft averages 38.35 in first-class cricket, while the ban paused his Test numbers on 402 runs at 30.92 from eight appearances.

He played all five matches in Australia’s 4-0 series win over England in last summer’s Ashes series.