Kleinveldt given Northants deadline

By Paul Bolton, County News Correspondent

Northamptonshire have set South Africa seamer Rory Kleinveldt a deadline of this Friday (February 1) to sign a contract to become their overseas player for the first month of next season. The county agreed terms with Kleinveldt two weeks ago but they will have to explore other overseas options if he has not signed a contract by the end of the week.

“We agreed terms two weeks ago but we have still not received a signed contract,” said Northamptonshire chief executive David Smith. “We don’t think that finance is an issue. Whether there is an IPL option there we aren’t sure. But we have spoken to Rory and said that we need to know what we are doing by Friday at the latest. If we need to start looking for another overseas player then we need to give ourselves time to do that.”

Meanwhile, Northamptonshire are celebrating the appointment of all-rounder Oli Stone as England’s Under-19 captain and their wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Duckett as his vice-captain.

Stone was promoted to captain after Leicestershire’s Shiv Thakor was ruled out of the current South Africa tour with a broken finger. Coincidentally, Stone also required an X-ray on a finger injury sustained during the first 'Test' in Cape Town earlier today but he returned to the field and took four for 40. Duckett led the side in Stone’s absence as South Africa were dismissed for 194 in reply to England’s first innings of 313.

* Northamptonshire’s off-spinning all-rounder James Middlebrook has been added to the MCC squad for the Champion County match against Warwickshire in Abu Dhabi in March. It will be the second time in four seasons that Middlebrook has played in the traditional curtain-raiser to the season in the untraditional setting of the desert having appeared against Durham in Abu Dhabi in 2010.

The 35-year-old Yorkshireman has filled one of the two gaps that were in the MCC team when the provisional side to face Warwickshire was announced last week. Middlebrook will also play for the MCC in the Emirates Airline T20 Trophy, a triangular competition which also includes Warwickshire and Sussex, in Dubai on March 21 and 22 ahead of the four-day fixture.

Middlebrook is about to start his fourth season with Northamptonshire, his third county, who he joined three years ago after he was released by Essex. He has prospered since he moved to Wantage Road and has been a consistent performer with bat and ball over the last three seasons with 1,817 first-class runs – including five centuries – and 85 wickets.



Date: 28/01/2013 20:14:10 by Paul Bolton
In: Today | Northamptonshire |