LONDON: Middlesex captain Leus du Plooy will miss the remainder of the English domestic cricket season because he declared his ambition to represent South Africa.
The 31-year-old batsman joined Derbyshire in 2019 on a special deal which allows certain foreign players in domestic English county cricket to be registered as locals rather than as overseas players.
Du Plooy had been registered as a local player since qualifying on residency grounds and he moved to Middlesex two years ago.
But having recently stated his desire to play for South Africa, he would need to be reclassified as an overseas player to continue representing Middlesex.
The club, however, were unaware that Du Plooy’s declaration automatically made him ineligible to continue playing as a local. And they did not realise their mistake until after Sunday’s deadline to register overseas players had passed.-AFP