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Ottneil Baartman, a fast bowler from South Africa, was unable to join Hampshire for the remainder of the T20 Blast due to visa concerns.
Baartman was scheduled to play for Hampshire in their final six group games. Baartman made six appearances at the T20 World Cup during South Africa’s run to the final. But unclear “visa issues” caused a delay in his arrival, and the club revealed on Friday that his contract has been cancelled as their odds of making the quarterfinals are now slim.
Hampshire issued a club statement, saying, “We would like to wish Ottneil all the best and hope to see him in a Hawks shirt in the future.” When Baartman first joined on, he was supposed to be a replacement for Naveen-ul-Haq, who had left Hampshire for “personal reasons” and was now playing Major League Cricket for the Texas Super Kings.
Hampshire enters Friday night’s game against Gloucestershire at the Ageas Bowl ranked seventh in the nine-team South Group of the Blast after two victories, three draws, and five losses. The top four teams advance to the quarterfinals, but they might need to win their final four games in order to advance.
“We’ll have to do some maths to see if we can still qualify,” Adi Birrell, their coach, said after their most recent defeat to Sussex. “I can’t really think that two wins out of ten gives us a chance of getting through to the quarter-finals but we’ll have to have a look at it.
“We had three rained-off games, which has given us a few points, but we’re not really playing well enough to go through… we were a bit off in all departments [against Sussex], as we have been throughout the campaign. We haven’t really put in a good performance in all departments.”