Kent have replaced the Australia seamer with South African allrounder Beyers Swanepoel, who has signed for all formats from May 1
Kent have become the latest county to have their overseas plans clipped by Cricket Australia, with seamer Xavier Bartlett's no-objection certificate declined.
Bartlett, who Kent tried to bring in ahead of the 2023 season as well prior to an injury ruling him out, has seen his stock rise exponentially in recent months, culminating in an international debut against West Indies.
Cricket Australia's refusal to grant him permission to feature in the County Championship comes a month after it had initially been agreed for Bartlett, who played with Kent white-ball captain Sam Billings at Brisbane Heat, to feature in five of the county's first seven red-ball matches.
He has now been ruled out of his Championship stint entirely. A deal for Bartlett to feature in six of Kent's first eight T20 Blast matches is yet to be determined.
Bartlett's withdrawal is not the first of the summer, with Cricket Australia pulling Aaron Hardie out of a move to Surrey, while also shortening Nathan Lyon's proposed season-long spell at Lancashire.
"Xavier Bartlett’s steep rise has been great to see," said Kent director of cricket Simon Cook. "National boards are always going to protect their best assets, so it wasn't a shock when we received news from Cricket Australia that they would be withdrawing his NOC."
It is steep learning for Cook, promoted from the role of Kent's bowling coach following the retirement of Paul Downton. He has moved quickly to replace Bartlett, though, with South African allrounder Beyers Swanepoel joining the county from the start of May for the entirety of the season.
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Beyers Swanepoel replaces Bartlett in Kent's squad (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
He has 127 first-class wickets at 19.28 apiece across a 33-match first-class career to date, while averaging 27.05 with the bat. He was part of the Sunrisers Eastern Cape side that won the SA20 over the winter.
Swanepoel said: "I'm absolutely thrilled to join a historic county side such as Kent and to play in all formats of the English county game.
"I hope to learn a lot whilst I'm here amongst a very talented squad. I spoke to former Kent overseas players before I signed and they couldn't recommend Kent highly enough as a place to come and improve my game in English conditions."
Cook added: "We looked very carefully at him earlier in the year but at that stage he hadn't played the required games to qualify as a viable overseas signing for us.
"He's a genuine allrounder who provides extra batting depth for us across all formats – a gap that we've looked to fill with our overseas players this year.
"We were able to work quickly to secure Beyers' signature, as he was in demand from other counties in similar situations. We're all looking forward to welcoming Beyers to Kent this summer."
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