Sidelined west indies pacer Shannon Gabriel has signed for English side Yorkshire on short-term county championship deal.

Gabriel has been working his way back to full fitness for Trinidad and Tobago in domestic cricket and has signed a three-match deal as a like-for-like replacement for Haris Rauf. 

He will begin and end his stint with fixtures at scarborough, against surrey then Hampshire, with a trip to Taunton to play Somerset in between.

Yorkshire are fifth in division one after five draws, a win and a loss in their opening seven games and will play Surrey in the quarter-finals of the T/20 blast tomorrow  after Leicestershire’s points deduction handed them a reprieve.

In light of the off-field crisis that has engulfed the club over the past two years, brought about by Azeem Rafiq’s allegations of a culture of institutional racism, Gabriel’s signing may be seen as a surprise.

Three years ago, he was banned for four ODI’s and fined 75% of his match fee after an apparent homophobic remark towards root.

He offered an “unreserved apology” but later claimed that the incident had been “blown way out of proportion”.