Cumbria will have a County Championship star in their ranks when they open the new competitive season on Sunday.
Richard Gleeson, who played 36 times for the county between 2010 and 2015 is on a white ball contract with Lancashire after an injury interrupted season.
He has been given special permission to test his fitness with his former Minor Counties side when they open the new campaign with a National T20 clash against Northumberland.
Cumbria president Eric Carter said: “Richard has always kept in touch with Gary Pratt and myself all the time he has played first class cricket.
“He approached Lancashire and asked if it would be ok with them to have a run with Cumbria in the National Counties T20 competition.
“They agreed so that is how his Cumbria return on Sunday came about.”
Gleeson took 81 Minor Counties wickets during his five seasons with Cumberland, plus 14 one-day wickets and it earned him a pro contract with Northants.
That led to a first-class debut in 2015, and the wickets of the Marsh brothers on debut and he impressed head coach David Ripley enough to win a pay-as-you-play deal for the following year.
He took a starring role in Northants’ title-winning T20 Blast season which earned him a shot at the Bangladesh Premier League with the Rangpur Riders.
He represented the England Lions in early 2018 after his ability to hit speeds of 90mph/145kph caught the eye, and signed with Lancashire later that year.
Since his Northants debut he has gone on to take 143 County Championship wickets with 78 in the one-day competitions.
His form earned him a place in the 55-strong squad selected for international training after the COVID pandemic and in July 2020 he was named as one of three reserve players in England’s squad for the ODI series.
Gleeson, now 34, had made a remarkable rise for a player who did not make his first-class debut until he was 27, having previously worked in a boiler factory and as a landscape gardener.
However, he has barely played in the last two seasons – with one appearance in 2020 and two T20 outings in 2021 – after being diagnosed with a stress fracture of the back, and as a consequence has chosen to focus on white-ball cricket only this year.
He has been undergoing rehabilitation with Lancashire’s sports science and medical department and trained with the wider squad throughout the winter.
Lancashire head coach Glen Chapple has said: “We are looking forward to having Richard available for us initially in the Vitality Blast and believe he can make an important contribution for us.
“He has had a tough time of it over the last 18 months but has worked hard with our sports science and medical team to regain full fitness ahead of this year’s campaign.
“We know what he is capable of and we’re looking forward to having him as part of our T20 squad this year.”
Cumbria will get the chance to give him his first serious work-out of the season on Sunday.
