Graeme Swann signs for Nottinghamshire

Graeme Swann, the Northamptonshire offspinner, has turned down the offer of a new contract, and will join Nottinghamshire next season after signing a three-year deal. Swann, 25, toured South Africa with England in 1999-2000 and played a solitary one-day international, and his decision to leave his home club after seven years will do nothing to improve the mood at Wantage Road. Northants are currently battling to avoid relegation from the first division of the County Championship, and have shown only middling form in the top division of the National League.

Swann, whose elder brother Alec preceded him out of the door at Northants when he left for Lancashire in 2001, told BBC Sport: "I feel this is the right time to make a positive move for my own development."

But Kepler Wessels, Northamptonshire's coach, wished Swann good luck: "I am pleased that Graeme has the chance to develop further his undoubted talent."

There is a chink of light for embattled Northants fans, though - the prolific Australian batsman Martin Love has already signed up for next year. Love, 30, impressed Wessels during a month-long stay this season, when he plundered 394 runs in just two Championship matches after replacing the South African Martin van Jaarsveld.

In signing Swann, Nottinghamshire continue to bolster their squad: the sometime England pair of Ryan Sidebottom, the left-arm seamer from Yorkshire, and the Kent allrounder Mark Ealham both joined them last winter.