Image Credit- CA
Weeks after Cricket Australia barred the fast bowler from representing them in the County Championship, Xavier Bartlett will play for Kent in the Vitality Blast.
A week after giving the 25-year-old a central contract, Bartlett’s CA rejected him a No Objection Certificate on the eve of the season. Bartlett was originally signed for Kent’s first five Championship games. After a breakthrough Australian summer in which he made his ODI and T20I debuts and headed the Big Bash League wickets list with 20 for Brisbane Heat, it was Bartlett’s first national agreement.
In his place, Kent signed South African bowling all-arounder Beyers Swanepoel on an all-format contract that would take effect on May 1 and last until the conclusion of the season. They had continued to hope that Bartlett could maintain the white-ball portion of the original agreement, which was worth eight Blast games or more. It is now verified.
It seems sense that CA are cautious about Bartlett’s workload, especially in relation to first-class cricket. Only three Sheffield Shield games were played by Queensland after he recovered from a back stress fracture he had suffered while playing club cricket in the previous English summer. It’s also likely that he’ll sign a contract with Major League Cricket, which kicks up on July 4. He is definitely in the running for Australia’s limited-overs trip of England in September, even though he is unlikely to reach the final 15 of their T20 World Cup squad.
Bartlett will be one of three overseas alternatives for Kent’s Blast season, which kicks off against Middlesex at Chelmsford on May 31. The other two choices are Swanepoel and fellow Australian seamer Wes Agar. They can only have two in a playing XI at a time.
In a statement released by Kent on Tuesday, director of cricket Simon Cook said: “We’ve been working extremely hard with Cricket Australia to ensure that Xavier can join us in some capacity this season, and we’re really pleased to have secured his services for eight matches of our T20 campaign.
“He is hot property at the moment and fully deserves his new central contract with Australia. I know that Spitfires supporters around the world will be extremely excited that the BBL’s top wicket-taker this Winter will be pulling on a Kent shirt this June.”