Middlesex Cricket is today delighted to announce that Mark Stoneman is joining the Club.
Left-handed opener Stoneman will join Middlesex on loan immediately and will be available for the Club’s final four County Championship matches of this season and has agreed terms on a three-year deal to represent the Club in all forms of the game from next season onwards.
Stoneman crosses the river to join Middlesex from Surrey, having played at the Oval for the last five seasons, after moving to the capital in 2017 from his home county of Durham, where he played for a decade. His new deal will see him remain at Lord’s until at least the end of the 2024 season.
He is widely regarded as one of the games’ most accomplished opening batsmen and brings a wealth of experience and quality with him to Middlesex, having played in over 200 first-class games and over 150 white ball matches for his two former counties.
He has 31 career hundreds to his name, 24 scored in the first-class game and seven in List-A cricket, the last of which came yesterday in his final appearance for Surrey. He has amassed over 16,000 runs in his career to date.
In 2017 he made his Test debut for England, against the West Indies at Edgbaston, which was the first of eleven appearances he has made as a Test opener for his country.
After finishing this season on loan at Middlesex, Stoneman will spend the winter in Australia and will join up with his Middlesex teammates again in pre-season, ahead of the start of the 2022 season.
Whilst the Club has announced that several players have committed their futures to Middlesex in recent weeks, signing long-term extensions to their contracts, Stoneman is the first external signing to the squad since a restructuring of the cricket department last month. Head Coach, Stuart Law, when commenting on the addition of the experienced opener, suggested it wouldn’t be the last big-named addition he was looking to make:
Law said:
“Having signed Mark on a three-year term, we look forward to welcoming him into the Middlesex family.
“Mark brings a wealth of experience from the cricket side of things, and it will be great to use that experience to drive our young batsmen forward.
“A tough no nonsense bloke who will form an experienced opening partnership with Sam Robson at the top of the order.
“We look forward to working with him in the years to come.
“This is a significant signing for us as we build a squad for future success here at Middlesex, and it won’t be the last signing we make before next season. There’ll be more to come on this in the coming weeks.”
Stoneman himself commented:
“I am really excited to be joining Middlesex.
“Playing at Lord’s is always a wonderful privilege and I’m delighted that it will be my home for the next three years.
“We have an exciting young squad and I hope I can help us achieve silverware over the next few seasons.”
