South African cricketer Alviro Peteresn

Somerset have announced that overseas signing Alviro Petersen will be extending the time that he will be with the Club this coming season to include the FLt20 competition.

Originally the South African opening batsman, who scored a century in the opening Test Match against New Zealand in Cape Town last week, was only going to be available for the opening half of the Championship season.

However, his commitments will now allow him to be at the County Ground until the end of July.

Alviro said: “I am very pleased that I will now be able to stay on at Somerset and play for them in the Twenty20 competition. Over the years they have done well in the competition and I would like to think that my contributions will help them to lift the trophy.”

Head Coach Andy Hurry said: “This is great news for Somerset and having a top class performer like Alviro in our T20 squad will certainly boost our batting and bring a wealth of experience to the side.”