County Cricket News / Updates Thread - 2015 Season

County Cricket News / Updates will be posted on this Thread - please feel free to comment / update

 

Jacques Rudolph has been named Glamorgan captain for 2015, replacing Mark Wallace who has been club captain for the last three seasons and Jim Allenby, who led the T20 side last season but has since signed for Somerset.

 

Nottinghamshire have signed South Africa bowling all-rounder Vernon Philander and Australia seamer Ben Hilfenhaus for next season.
Philander, 29, a former Kent, Middlesex and Somerset fast bowler, will feature in six County Championship and three T20 Blast matches. Hilfenhaus, 31, will make his debut in English county cricket when he comes in to replace Philander from 5 June.

 

Alviro Petersen has retired from international cricket following the Test series against West Indies and will take up a Kolpak deal in English county cricket. The strong suggestion is that Lancashire are the favourites to sign the opener, whose last county stint was with Somerset in 2014.

 

Surrey have confirmed the signing of Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakkara.
The 37-year-old is top of the current Test batting rankings and fifth in the all-time list of Test run-scorers. He will retire from one-day internationals after the forthcoming World Cup and is likely to be available for much of the 2015 county season.

 

Hampshire bowler Andre Adams is set to be ready for the start of next season after undergoing knee surgery in New Zealand, according to the county's director of cricket Giles White. The 39-year-old signed at the end of last season from Nottinghamshire and had an operation before Christmas.

 

It's good to see a top class player in County Cricket next season

 

Craig Kieswetter's eye injury could be "career-ending", Somerset director of cricket Matthew Maynard has admitted. The 27-year-old England wicketkeeper broke his nose and damaged his eye socket and cheekbone when a ball went through his helmet grille while batting against Northants last July.
Somerset expect him to at least miss the entire 2015 county season. And Maynard confirmed Kieswetter will travel to Belgium this week for further assessment with a specialist.

 

Lancashire have signed former South Africa opening batsman Alviro Petersen on a two-year contract. He will join as a non-overseas player under the Kolpak ruling, and has the option of a third year with the county.

 

Northants have signed South African pair Rory Kleinveldt and Richard Levi for all formats this summer.
All-rounder Kleinveldt, 31, almost joined Northants in each of the past two seasons, but the deals fell though. He has played Tests, one-dayers and T20 for South Africa, but has not featured at international level since 2013.
Batsman Levi, 27, who has appeared in 13 T20 internationals, has signed up for his third consecutive season at Wantage Road.
Kleinveldt will be the county's overseas player, while Levi, who has a first-class average of 39.14, is a Kolpak signing.

 

Northants have signed Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi for the first six T20 Blast games of this summer.
The big-hitting 34-year-old holds the record of 342 for the most sixes in the history of one-day internationals. And he has a strike-rate of 116.29 from 389 one-day internationals and 145.29 from 77 T20 games for Pakistan

 

Derbyshire have re-signed batsman Martin Guptill as their overseas player for the early part of the 2015 season. The 28-year-old New Zealander played for the club in the 2011 and 2012 seasons and will return for the opening six Championship matches and first three T20 Blast fixtures of next term.

 

Yorkshire have signed Australia internationals Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell for the 2015 county season.
Batsman Finch, 28, spent part of last season with the White Rose county and will return after his Indian Premier League commitments end in May. Finch will be available for all formats of the game, but all-rounder Maxwell, 26, who also has an IPL contract, will only feature in the T20 Blast.

 

Former England spin bowler Richard Dawson has returned to Gloucestershire as head coach.

 

Surrey have appointed off-spinner Gareth Batty as club captain. The 37-year-old, who is in his second spell with the county, has previously skippered the side and takes over the role from wicketkeeper Gary Wilson.

 

New Zealand allrounder James Franklin has signed a two-year deal with Middlesex, a move that will end his international career.
Franklin, a veteran of 179 international appearances for New Zealand, will - subject to clearance from the ECB - qualify as a non-overseas player courtesy of Irish ancestry. Both parties have the option to extend the deal by another year if mutually agreed.

 

An age discrimination and unfair dismissal case has been brought by Peter Willey and George Sharp against the ECB - it surrounds the compulsory retirement at 65 for umpires.
Surely if they are good enough age should not matter?? This just goes to show how poorly the ECB is run.

 

Somerset have confirmed all-rounder Craig Overton has undergone surgery on a long-standing ankle problem. Overton suffered a recurrence of the injury while on England Lions duty in South Africa last month. The club expect the 20-year-old to return to action in time for the start of the 2015 County Championship season on 12 April.

 

Somerset have signed batsman Tom Cooper for the 2015 season. The 28-year-old was born in Australia, but has played at international level for the Netherlands. The right-hander has played 23 one-day internationals, scoring 976 runs at an average of 48.80, and has 2,697 first-class runs to his name.

 

Lancashire have appointed all-rounder Tom Smith as their new captain ahead of the new season. The 29-year-old takes over from Glen Chapple, who has become part of cricket director Ashley Giles' backroom staff in a player-coach role.