Wessels signed up by BPL franchise

By Dave Bracegirdle

Nottinghamshire’s Riki Wessels will play in the Bangladesh Premier League after being signed by the Khulna Royal Bengals franchise in Thursday’s auction. Wessels was bought for a fee of $25,000 and will join up with last season’s defeated semi-finalists ahead of next month’s tournament.

“I had training this morning and went to the gym so didn’t follow the auction,” said the 27-year-old. “I saw an email from my agent, Eddie Tolchard, afterwards and started receiving messages from friends.

"At the moment I don’t know too much about when I’ll be going as Eddie is currently in Australia watching the Big Bash but I’m sure he’ll have all the details for me soon.”

Trent Bridge team-mate Andre Adams played for Khulna in the inaugural BPL so will be a handy source of information for the new signing.

“I’ll try to speak to Andre about his experience but I’m just really looking forward to it. It will be a really good opportunity to go away for a month of the English winter and experience different conditions and it should give me some useful match practice before I go with Notts on their pre-season tour of Barbados in March.”

The aggressive right-handed batsman fills in as second-choice keeper at Notts, behind Chris Read, but he is a front-line wicketkeeper in his own right, something that may benefit Khulna.

“I’ll certainly be taking all my gear,” said Wessels, “But I’ve seen that they have also signed Umar Akmal. I know he’s kept for Pakistan in t20 so he may be asked to take the gloves.”

Wessels’ county colleague Alex Hales will also feature in the event after becoming involved in a bidding war. Rangpur submitted a bid of $50,000 for the England opener before Rajshahi signed him with an offer of $58,000. The second edition of the Bangladesh Premier League will start on January 18.




Date: 20/12/2012 23:44:28 by Dave Bracegirdle
In: Today | Nottinghamshire |