Yorkshire today strengthened their fast bowling squad by signing 25-year-old Scottish-born paceman John Blain from Northamptonshire.

Blain, who stands 6ft 2in tall and weighs 13st 7lb, is from Edinburgh and he shared a place in Scotland's World Cup team in 1999 with Gavin Hamilton who left Yorkshire at the end of last season and is now with Durham.

Blain joined Northants in 1997 and on his Sunday League debut grabbed 5-24 against Derbyshire.

Yorkshire have good cause to remember him because in a Championship match at Headingley in May, 2001, he shocked them by capturing 4-34 in eight overs as the Tykes staggered to their 77 target with only four wickets in hand.

Earlier in the same match, Blain's fellow paceman, Darren Cousins, captured 8-102 to record the best figures at Headingley by a visiting bowler in 13 years.

Blain took only 13 wickets for Northants last year and decided to leave in order to get more opportunities elsewhere. So far he has taken 49 first class wickets during his career but they have cost him over 47 runs apiece and although he is pretty sharp he can also be expensive.

He has plenty of natural ability, however, and with correct handling he could be just the bowler Yorkshire need to help plug the gaps that are bound to occur this season.

Matthew Hoggard is sure to be missing with England for much of the summer and Steve Kirby could also find himself in the Test side if others fail.

Yorkshire have also lost the bowling services of Darren Gough, Ryan Sidebottom, Gary Fellows and David Stiff over the winter and director of cricket, David Byas, recently acknowledged that they could be short of experienced pacemen through Test calls and injuries if they did not make a signing.

Blain became the youngest player ever to represent Scotland when he made his debut at 17 years and 114 days, going on to play for them in the Benson and Hedges Cup and NatWest Trophy competitions.

Former Yorkshire batsman, Jim Love, was Scotland's director of cricket in the 1999 World Cup when both Blain and Hamilton served their country proud, Blain ending up with ten wickets and finishing with the best strike rate in the tournament.

Blain was due to have pre-season trials with Essex before deciding to accept the approach from Yorkshire.

Updated: 11:17 Monday, March 15, 2004