An offer of a playing assistant coach role for the death-bowling specialist from his former opponent and now Hurricanes boss Damien Wright was enough to entice him to pull on the purple for this year's Big Bash League.

Mascarenhas, whose Australian passport allows him to be on Hobart's list as a domestic signing, said he was hopeful the job could help him become a full-time bowling coach.

"The next stage of my career is going into coaching, so the offer of an assistant coach role was huge for me," he said yesterday.

"(But) first of all I'm a player, and then an assistant coach with my experience of bowling, especially in the one-day format. Hopefully I'm going to be an asset to this team, and hopefully take some wickets and help us get to the finals."

The 36-year-old, who is also known for his lower-order hitting, has played 126 Twenty20s (including 14 for England) taking 147 wickets at 20.31 and scoring 1332 runs at 19.30.

Hobart's first match will be against the Adelaide Strikers on Sunday, December 22.