Nottinghamshire sign veteran keeper John Simpson from Sussex
Nottinghamshire have signed wicketkeeper John Simpson from Sussex on a two-year deal.
The 38-year-old will play County Championship and One-Day Cup cricket at Trent Bridge. The Championship is the four-day, first-class county competition. The One-Day Cup is the 50-over tournament. The length of the contract takes him past his 40th birthday, according to BBC Sport.
Simpson is a left-handed batter and gloveman. That means he keeps wicket, standing behind the stumps to catch and stump batters out. He brings more than 14,000 runs across first-class and List A cricket in a 17-year professional career.
His record at Sussex was strong. He did not miss a Championship match in three seasons there. He scored 11 centuries, averaged just over 50 and claimed 144 dismissals behind the stumps.
Simpson joined Sussex in 2024 after more than a decade at Middlesex. At Middlesex he won the Division One title in 2016. At Sussex he captained the side to promotion from Division Two. He also helped them reach T20 Blast Finals Day in his first year. That is the end-of-season showpiece for the short-format T20 county competition.
He has England honours too. Simpson won three One-Day International caps in 2021. An ODI is a 50-over match between national sides.
His 2026 season was quieter by his standards. He scored 581 Championship runs. It was the first time in his three years at Sussex that he finished below 1,000 runs for the season. Sussex still finished third in the table, just ahead of Nottinghamshire.
For Notts, the signing closes one chapter and opens another. Kyle Verreynne’s three-year spell as wicketkeeper has ended. The South African helped the club win the 2025 County Championship title. His time at Trent Bridge was cut short in September when he was called up by Cricket South Africa. New Zealand’s Mitchell Hay then arrived on a short-term deal.
Nottinghamshire could not defend their title in 2026. Simpson now arrives as the experienced replacement.
What makes this stand out is reliability. Keepers who bat in the top six and never miss a game are rare. Notts get runs, leadership and a safe pair of hands in one package.
