Afridi rejoins Northants for T20 Blast Finals Day

All four will then head to Cardiff for the one-off NatWest T20 worldwide at the SSE Swalec on Monday.

Willey moves to Yorkshire at the end of the season, leaving county cricket’s smallest club for its largest, but more immediately Saturday’s Natwest T20 Blast is a handy warm-up for the end-of-summer internationals against Australia.

Northants have confirmed they will have Shahid Afridi available for the Natwest T20 Blast Finals Day.

“Getting to a final and winning it is a great feeling and hopefully we can do it again this year”.

And most of the squad know what it is like to win the T20 title. Hampshire won it in 2010 and 2012 and are making a record-extending sixth appearance at Finals Day but have gone out at the semi final stage in each of the last two.

However his inclusion in the squad has now been agreed and he will feature in the first semi-final at Edgbaston, against Birmingham at 11am.

“We tried all that sort of stuff – we changed the hotel last time but we’re back at the one we used to stay at this year!”

He was not at his best as Hampshire lost their Royal London One-Day Cup quarter-final against Gloucestershire at Bristol on Wednesday.

But limited-overs specialist Arafat has happier memories of Finals Days in Birmingham. There will be four live bands, pyrotechnics, acrobats, gunge tanks, and a Bungee Blast behind the RES Wyatt Stand – as well as the Mascot Race, in which Stumpy from Somerset will be defending his title.

That was his third Finals Day in as many years, having been in the Kent team that lost to Middlesex when the Rose Bowl hosted county cricket’s showpiece for the first time. And the youngsters we’ve had for the last few years have gained in experience.

Vince said: “You look forward to Finals Day as soon as you qualify so it was disappointing to lose like that”.

“Everyone at Warwickshire CCC takes great pride in staging Finals Day – and rightly so”.