24 Jan 2012
Albie Morkel to replace Roelof van der Merwe for Twenty20
Somerset CCC is delighted to announce that they have signed South African all rounder Albie Morkel, in place of Roelof van der Merwe, to play alongside Chris Gayle in this season’s Twenty20 Cup competition.
Director of Cricket Brian Rose said: “The club has signed Albie Morkel from South Africa as our second overseas player for the T20 competition this season. Albie is an immensely gifted cricketer and especially exciting one day player and fits in well with our set up in the T20. The combination of Gayle and Morkel is a mouth watering prospect for our supporters!”
Originally Roelof van der Merwe was set to play for Somerset from June 1st onwards but this now looks unlikely as the Director of Cricket explained.
“As we went through the detailed paperwork process it became apparent that Roelof van der Merwe was highly unlikely to be granted a work permit due to current Home Office legislation, though the door remains open for him at Somerset if the situation can be resolved.” He went on: “In the event of Roelof being unable to gain Home Office clearance in time for this season, I will be actively looking for an overseas replacement for July, August and September.”
Albie Morkel, who is a 30 year old left handed batsman and right arm medium fast bowler, is a vastly experienced cricketer in all forms of the game, having played in one Test Match, 55 One Day Internationals and 31 Twenty20 matches forSouth Africa. He has also appeared for Chennai Super Kings,Durham,Easterns,South AfricaUnder-19s and Titans.
In his 31 Twenty 20 internationals Morkel has scored 443 runs at an average of 23.31 and taken 18 wickets at a cost of 33.77 runs each. Morkel has appeared in 157 Twenty 20 matches in his career and hit 2285 runs at 28.20, including 128 sixes, as well as capturing 136 wickets at an average of 27.40.
