Foxes sign Singh

RP Singh © Getty Images

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Leicestershire rounded off their pre-season tour of India by signing talented seam bowler RP Singh as their second overseas player for the 2007 season.

Senior coach Tim Boon inalised negotiations with 21-year-old Rudra Pratap Singh - otherwise known as RP - during the India leg of the tour to support the Cricket Star project.

Singh, one of a batch of promising seamers produced by India recently, comes highly-recommended by their national coach, Greg Chappell, after narrowly missing out on a World Cup place.

He has played two Tests and 20 one-day internationals and is tipped for a big future at that level.

Boon said: "The prospect of RP Singh linking up with Stuart Broad to spearhead our attack is an exciting one, while we also have a number of other good young seam bowlers at the club.

"He comes highly recommended by Greg Chappell, has a classic left arm bowling action and is deceptively quick."

Mansoor Amjad will play with RP Singh for Leicestershire

"There is tremendous competition among left arm seamers in India with Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, and it's a measure of his potential that he is up there in contention. The experience of playing in English conditions will help him to fulfil that potential."

Singh will team up with 20-year-old Pakistan leg-spinner-batsman Mansoor Amjad, Leicestershire's other overseas signing.

"We wanted to select our overseas players for 2007 from emerging talent with the character to fit into the new club culture, but we were also aware that we needed to take more championship wickets, and we feel these two bowlers can help us to achieve that objective," added Boon.

After starring in the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2004, Singh took two wickets in his second over of international cricket when he made his debut in an ODI against Zimbabwe.

He was named man of the match in his third appearance after taking four wickets against Sri Lanka, while he also claimed nine victims in his two Test appearances on the 2006 tour of Pakistan.

India opener Virender Sehwag, a former Leicestershire player, said: "RP is a very talented bowler - his speciality is that he can bring the ball into the right handers and swing it both ways."