Australian batsman David Hussey has agreed to return to Nottinghamshire for the 2010 season.

Hussey first joined Notts in 2004 and spent four summers at the club before accepting an Indian Premier League Contract and earning international honours in 2008.

He was a revelation in a five-week stint at Trent Bridge in 2009 scoring two hundreds and a fifty in 3 LV= County Championship matches and an unbeaten 120 in the NatWest Pro40 game against Somerset.

“David is a proven match-winner in all forms of the game and he has made a big impact whenever he has been available to us,” said Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket Mick Newell.

“He was our number one target and he is always keen to play for us when his commitments allow. He’ll lead our batting and we couldn’t ask for a better or more dominant player to do that for us.”

Hussey scored 111 not out for Australia in a one-off ODI against Scotland in August but didn’t feature in the NatWest Series against England and hasn’t been selected for Australia’s seven-match tour of India where he is currently representing Victoria Bushrangers in the Twenty20 Champions League.

“Nottingham is like a second home to me and I’m thrilled to be invited back again,” said Hussey.

“Fortunately I should be available for most of the season this year and I’m looking forward to seeing what changes have been put in place. I just hope that it will be a hugely successful one for us.”

Hussey will miss the beginning of Nottinghamshire’s season to play in the Indian Premier League and Newell hasn’t ruled out signing Adam Voges to provide cover in the early weeks in addition to an overseas Twenty20 specialist.

“Adam is keen on playing county cricket next summer so a shorter spell with us may be a good fit but we need to have further discussions because he may choose to spend a full season elsewhere,” said Newell.

“We’re waiting to see the fixture schedule because that could affect the availability of our second overseas player for the Twenty20 competition. We’ve identified some targets and we are keen to take advantage of the rule change.”