India cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara will not be available for the opening match of the Sussex County Championship following a delay in issuance of his visa. Sussex have to run their campaign against Nottinghamshire from 7 April (Thursday).
Pujara had signed a contract with the Sussexes to play in their first six matches of the season and later returned for the Royal London Cup and more championship matches. However, the delay, a result of the Ukraine crisis, means the Indian will only be available from the second match onwards.
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“It has been very difficult to secure foreign players in the current environment. We renegotiated Pujara’s initial contract so that he could return for more County Championship and Royal London Cup matches, and this subsequently changed the visa requirements,” Sussex performance director Keith Greenfield said on the club’s website .
“On top of this, the Ukraine crisis means that the Home Office redirected its resources to help with the displacement of Ukrainian citizens. We were expecting Pujara to join us last weekend but can now confirm that he Will be here this weekend.”
Sussex head coach Ian Salisbury is ‘extremely disappointed’ to remember someone like Pujara for his season opener. “Of course I am extremely disappointed that we will not have the experience and quality of Pujara to be available for the opening day of the season, but we should move on and focus on our game now,” Salisbury said.
Pujara was dropped from India’s Test squad for the two-match home series against Sri Lanka. He has also been demoted from Grade A+ to Grade B in BCCI’s central contracts. This happened when the middle order batsmen found themselves under pressure due to lack of big scores.
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