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South Africa’s swashbuckling batter Heinrich Klassen, on Wednesday, pulled out of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2024 due to a family emergency, as per reports in ESPNCricinfo. The decision comes three days ahead of the Saint Lucia Kings’ opening game against the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, scheduled to be played at Warner Park in Basseterre on September 1.
The franchise has replaced Klaasen with New Zealand batter Tim Seifert, who last played for the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) in 2020.
Klaasen’s absence is a big setback for Saint Lucia owing to his game-changing knocks in the T20 format. The wicketkeeper-batter has amassed 4746 runs in 211 matches (194 innings) at a stunning strike rate of 150.18, hitting two centuries and 30 fifties.
Notably, the Pretoria-born player has emerged as a big threat in the format over the last two years. The 33-year-old has scored 2293 runs in 82 games at a strike rate of 169, including two tons and 16 half-centuries.
In CPL, Heinrich Klassen last played for the Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) in 2022, scoring 118 runs in five games at a strike rate of 137.
Meanwhile, Sikandar Raza has also pulled out of CPL due to an injury. The St Kitts and Nevis Patriots are yet to announce a replacement for the Zimbabwe all-rounder.
Andries Gous, Dunith Wellalage, and Shamarh Brooks make merry as star players set to arrive late in CPL
USA’s Andries Gous, Sri Lanka’s Dunith Wellalage, and local boy Shamarh Brooks will get a chance to play in CPL as star players like Tim David (Knight Riders), David Miller, and Keshav Maharaj (both Barbados Royals) will miss a few games. David will join after the first four games, while Miller and Maharaj will skip the first two matches to attend the Cricket South Africa awards on September 5.
Gous recently emerged as the seventh-highest run-getter in the T20 World Cup, scoring 219 runs in six games at a strike rate of 151.03. including two half-centuries.
Similarly, Wellalage emerged as Sri Lanks’s second-highest leading run-getter in the ODI series versus India. He scored 108 runs in three innings with the help of a half-century. Meanwhile, Brooks has 1231 runs in 67 T20s, comprising one century and three fifties.
