It has been 12 years, but Jason van der Merwe is on his way back to Muckamore.

The 31 year-old left Moylena to spend five years at CSNI, before a move to CIYMS where he has won every honour in the Irish game.

Van Der Merwe has been one of the leading run scorers in the region over the past decade, making over 6000 runs at an average of 30, which included 31 half centuries and four hundreds.

The 2023 season was among his most prolific, where his 879 runs at 51.71 (2 hundreds, 6 fifties) helped the Belmont side win the All-Ireland T20 Cup.

He was the MVP at the European Cricket finals, where he helped CIYMS to a third place finish.

"I'm absolutely delighted with the signing of Jason," said club captain Neil Gill.

"He’s been away for 12 seasons now and won everything in the game and has scored a lot of runs along the way.

"He will add a lot of firepower to our batting line-up and his experience will no doubt rub off on our younger guys in the teams."

There was further good new for Muckamore who have confirmed that Ben Calitz will be back for a second term with the club after helping them secure promotion.