Pettini signs for Leicestershire

Leicestershire County Cricket Club is delighted to secure the signing of Essex batsman Mark Pettini on a three-year contract at Grace Road.

Pettini is the third quality batsman with leadership experience to have joined Leicestershire in the last few weeks following the arrival of Neil Dexter from Middlesex and Paul Horton from Lancashire.

The 32-year-old is a stroke-maker who has amassed 7,926 first-class runs at an average of 36.73, including 46 fifties and 12 centuries. Pettini has made LV=County Championship scores of 134, 68 and 117 not out this season and ended with a terrific average of over 100.

The batsman also has a fine record in white ball cricket, where his trademark has been to play aggressive innings as an opener. Pettini, who captained Essex between 2007 and 2010, has made 4,352 List A runs at 29.20 and has scored 2,926 T20 runs with a highly impressive strike rate of 128.89.

Pettini said: “I’m extremely pleased to sign, Leicestershire have shown great faith in me and I’m excited to be a part of the squad. The vision that Wasim Khan and Andrew McDonald have for the club is extremely exciting and I’m already looking forward to next season.”

Leicestershire and Rutland Cricket Chief Executive Wasim Khan MBE said: “We are delighted to have secured the signings of three high-class batsmen with leadership experience in Mark Pettini, Neil Dexter and Paul Horton.

“It was imperative that we added experience to our batting line-up to complement the talented young players that we have at Grace Road and we are pleased to have signed all three players before the start of our winter programme.

“To go alongside those three batsmen, Wayne White also signed a three-year contract and we have brought Umar Akmal and Kevin O’Brien back to play white ball cricket for the 2016 season.

"A number of key players have also extended their contracts in Ned Eckersley, Charlie Shreck, Clint McKay, Ben Raine, Angus Robson, Rob Sayer and James Sykes, so there are exciting times ahead.”