Monty Panesar will attempt to arrest his mid-career slump by moving from Northamptonshire to Sussex next season. Sussex will announce today that they have signed the left-arm spinner, who had a year remaining on his contract with Northamptonshire.

Panesar, 27, who has played at Wantage Road since making his first-class debut in 2001, lost his ECB central contract at the end of last season, which meant that a county would have to pick up his £125,000-a-year wage bill.

This would have caused problems for Northamptonshire, but it is understood that they were also unable to guarantee first-team cricket for Panesar, who took only 18 wickets in 13 championship matches last season, at a cost of 59.44 runs each. Their captain, Nicky Boje, a South Africa all-rounder, is also a left-arm spinner.

Panesar, who is playing for Highveld Lions in South African domestic cricket at present, has worked extensively in the past few months with Mushtaq Ahmed, the England bowling coach and former Sussex leg spinner, who maintains strong links with his former county.

Since he took 100 Test wickets in his first 28 matches, Panesar has struggled desperately for form over the past two seasons. He now has 126 wickets from 39 Tests at an average of 34.37.

His most recent appearance for England was the first Ashes Test against Australia at Cardiff in July, when he took one wicket in 35 overs, but helped to save the game in a remarkable tenth-wicket partnership with James Anderson.