Lancashire cricket manager Mike Watkinson has moved quickly to replace Brad Hodge by swooping for Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf.
The 33-year-old fills the five-week void left by the Indian Premier League-bound Australian.
And Yousuf is expected to make his debut in the Friends Provident Trophy game against Durham on Sunday, subject to a work permit and clearance.
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"The decision to allow Brad to compete in the IPL happened quite suddenly," explained Watkinson.
"As I said at the time, the club would only replace him if a top quality player was available.
"We are delighted to have captured one of the world's leading batsmen, and look forward to him making an immediate impact for the county.
"Fred (Andrew Flintoff) said that he is one of the best players that he has ever bowled at - you can't get much higher praise than that. His availability just seems to tie in perfectly with the time that we don't have Brad."
Yousuf has played 79 Test matches and 261 one-day internationals for his country, scoring just short of 16,000 runs.
He is due to arrive in England on Friday - and should play in at least three County Championship matches, against Durham, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, and six Friends Provident games.
He said: "I've always wanted to play county cricket, and to get the opportunity with a club as big as Lancashire is fantastic.
"Old Trafford is somewhere I've enjoyed playing at during my international career. I'm determined to make a significant contribution to Lancashire's season."
He is the first Pakistani to play for the Red Rose county since legendary all-rounder Wasim Akram.
Watkinson revealed: "He mentioned Wasim, and said how much he is looking forward to following in his footsteps."
He continued: "There are so many players playing in the IPL, and it looked like it was going to be tough to get a player of the quality we wanted.
"I have always said that what we are looking to do is to fill our overseas spot with top quality players - the likes of Andrew Symonds.
"But it didn't look like it was going to possible - and we would have been quite happy to roll our sleeves up and get on with the players we already have."
Yousuf has scored four Test double hundreds, with two of them coming against England. He was the 2007 ICC Test player of the year.
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