Who's coming to a ground near you?
Wednesday 18 May 2016 10:36, UK
Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, and Dwayne Bravo headline the list of star names set to play in the 2016 NatWest T20 Blast.
Who has been added to your team's squad and when and where can you expect to see them in action?
Here's our guide to the stars to look out for...
Star signings
Gayle turns out again for Somerset, for whom he smashed an astonishing 151 not out off 62 balls in one game last year, albeit in a defeat to Kent.
Joining him at Somerset is Mahela Jayawardene, with the two making for an imposing top order on the batsman-friendly Taunton surface.
McCullum joins Middlesex, hoping to drastically improve their fortunes after two seasons of finishing bottom of the South Group with a combined six wins from 28 games in that time, with a familiar face, former Black Caps team-mate Mitchell McClenaghan, joining him at Lord's.
Surrey boast a similarly strong squad, with a wealth of talent on display at The Oval - Kumar Sangakkara, Aaron Finch, Dwayne Bravo and Chris Morris all set to feature at some point during the tournament.
Set to star at Sussex, meanwhile, is Bangladesh's super left-arm seamer, Mustafizur Rahman, who fresh from dazzling displays at the World T20 and IPL, will join Ross Taylor on the south coast.
Yorkshire - looking to translate their County Championship successes into the shortest format - call upon New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson and Aussie big-hitter Travis Head.
Big hitters
Speaking of big-hitters, the biggest of the overseas stars in the 2015 Blast was somewhat surprisingly Australian Michael Klinger.
The left-hander smashed three hundreds while amassing 654 runs with a strike-rate of 142.17 in his 12 innings for Gloucestershire and he returns to Bristol for 2016.
'Boom Boom' Shahid Afridi and World T20 'champion' captain Darren Sammy will make for some colourful cricket at Hampshire.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's Umar Akmal and South Africa's Rilee Roussow will hope to conjure the same underdog spirit that saw Leicester City to Premier League success during their stints with Leicestershire.
Australian all-rounder Dan Christian - hitter of one of the biggest sixes ever seen in last year's Big Bash - teams up with Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge again, while New Zealand's Luke Ronchi heads Warwickshire way.
Blast bowlers
Kagiso Rabada is a new face to county cricket - the 20-year-old, who put in a match-winning turn in South Africa's Test series against England over the winter, joins up with Kent.
Raw pace will be provided by Pakistan's Wahab Riaz and New Zealand's Adam Milne for Essex at Chelmsford, while T20 specialist Andrew Tye joins Gloucestershire.
Jeetan Patel has been a consistently canny performer for Warwickshire over the years, and T20 toe-cruncher and gun-for-hire, Shaun Tait, lands with Glamorgan for 2016.
Promising young spinner Mitchell Santner is with Worcestershire, as is his New Zealand team-mate, Matt Henry - although only for the first half of the Blast, with South Africa seamer Kyle Abbott eventually taking his spot.
Catch live NatWest T20 Blast action on Friday night as Essex Eagles and Surrey do battle at Chelmsford. That match is live on Sky Sports 2 from 7pm.
