Hampshire have signed Nottinghamshire star Andre Adams for three months of next season.

The veteran strike bowler will be 40 in July and was planning to retire, but will replace Kyle Abbott at The Ageas Bowl.

Director of cricket Giles White has revealed that Adams is likely to play the first three months of next season and will be available in all forms.

A week after the Daily Echo first revealed Hampshire’s interest in Adams, White confirmed: “That’s a goer, Andre was very keen on Hampshire, that was obvious when we spoke to him.

“It all happened very quickly. He’ll bring a lot of experience being a seasoned campaigner in county cricket.

“He’s done well again this year and I feel he’ll add a lot on the field but also with the younger bowlers in the team.

“He’s down to play all forms but historically he’s played more Championship cricket so we’ll have a look at the schedule, see where it fits and how best to manage him through that period.

“He’s also got coaching commitments, his next career is coaching at Auckland, so we’ll see where those first three months take us. I think they’ll be heavily loaded with Championship cricket.

“We had ten Championship games in the first three months this year, so assuming the schedule is similar it makes sense to have Andre at the beginning of the season, when he’ll be most effective.”

Title-chasing Notts had already told Adams they would not be renewing his contract after signing Will Gidman and extending Harry Gurney’s deal.

But Notts coach Mick Newell said: “Andre’s been terrific for us and when he’s been fit he’s still been our best bowler this season. He’s been absolutely brilliant year after year since we signed him in 2007.” Only one other New Zealander has taken more than Adams’ 683 first-class wickets at 23.75 – Sir Richard Hadlee.

A former New Zealand international, he has not played limited-overs county cricket for a few years and injuries have limited him to 20 Championship matches in the last two seasons.

But he has still taken 67 wickets at 28.98 in that time, including 36 at 28.13 this year (he has 344 Championship wickets at 24.18 for Notts overall).

“We’ll have to manage him and make sure we get that part of it right but he’s got a pretty economical action,” continued White.

“Obviously you sign a senior player to get results on the pitch but they tend to offer a lot more than that - Dominic Cork had a good impact for us over a short period of time - and I imagine the younger players will feed off him.”

Adams is a former Auckland teammate of Hampshire captain Jimmy Adams and would need no introduction to several of his new teammates, having taken 40 wickets at 17.22 against them in the Championship – his best record against county opposition.

That includes his career-best 11-85 at Trent Bridge in April 2011, at the beginning of Hampshire’s last season in the first division.

“Hopefully we can get those sort of performances from him in April, May and June,” said White, who is still in negotiations with out-of-contract first teamers Michael Bates and David Balcombe.

“There are a few contracts we haven’t made decisions on just yet,” he added.

Meanwhile, Hampshire will resume their LV County Championship match against Leicestershire at The Ageas Bowl on 48-0 after bowling the visitors out for 303 in what little play was possible on a rain-affected second day.