Tait provides X Factor for Glamorgan - Croft

1 Apr 2016 | Cricket
Head Coach Robert Croft is excited by the signing of Australian fast bowler Shaun Tait for this summer's NatWest Blast T20 campaign.
Tait played a stint of T20 games for the Welsh county in 2010 and has since featured for Essex Eagles in the in two of the last three seasons in the shortest format competition.

Glamorgan will be pleased to have him in their side not least because he claimed six wickets in two appearances against them last season as they pipped Glamorgan to the fourth qualifying spot from the South Group.

Tait will play 7 games this summer in July with another overseas signing targeted for the first part of the tournament to cover the 14 match group stage.

It's a statement of intent from the club to attract again one of the quickest bowlers who has ever played the game, said Croft.

He will be a terrific sight for all our team and all our supporters to come down and hopefully they will be able to see the white ball travelling quickly through the air from his arm to the keeper.

He provides that X-factor and I am very excited. He is currently playing T20 around the world. He is fit, hungry and bowling fast.

We have done some research and looked into how he has performed. He is still at the top of his game and there were a lot of teams interested in him.

Since finishing playing first-class cricket at the age of 25, Tait has become a T20 specialist around the world with an extensive list of teams on his CV including Adelaide Strikers, South Australia, Chittagong Kings, Hobart Hurricanes, Melbourne Renegades, Peshawar Zalmi, Wellington and Rajasthan Royals.

The 33-year-old was recalled to the Australia national set-up for the three-match Twenty20 series against India in January following some hostile spells in the most recent edition of the Big Bash League.

He was selected again because he was still recognised as the fastest bowler in Australia but was not included in the final 15-man squad for the T20 World Cup in India where Steve Smith's side bowed out at the group stages

Dubbed 'The Wild Thing', Tait at a T20 international in February against Pakistan, Tait bowled a ball measured at 160.7 kmh, the fastest ball ever recorded in Australia.

His fastest ball was against England at Lords at 100.1 mph in 2010, which is equal second fastest of all time behind Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar.

Glamorgan have already signed Netherlands bowler Timm van der Gugten in the close season to add to the likes of Michael Hogan, Graham Wagg and Craig Meschede in the seamers department.

In recent times we have had a number of runs on the board but not had that extra strength in depth to the bowling department, added Croft.

We were always thinking of a bowler. If you look at T20 not many sides get bowled out or even go past six down.

If you reflect on last season that extra five to eight mile an hour of pace was we needed to take on that opposition who were coming at us quite hard at us.

Hopefully that won't happen if we have someone like Shaun Tait in our side.

We all know the T20 game is a lot about how many boundaries are hit.

When you have someone that quick with that much experience hopefully it will prevent the opposition hitting too many boundaries and also allow us to take out wickets because that stops the flow of runs.

The game is going forwards, not backwards.

You don't see too many timid teams winning many competitions now and you have to go out there and impose yourself on the opposition.

And Croft confirmed Glamorgan were in negotiations with signing another overseas player for the first seven games of the campaign.

We are looking for another player for the first games, added Croft.

Hugh Morris is chatting with the people we have identified and hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will be able to announce that.

We identified the people we wanted and sometimes the things you really want take a little bit longer to get.

This is the first part of it and hopefully in the next couple of weeks we can get the second part.

NatWest T20 Blast season tickets priced from £60 for all 7 games are now on sale here