Cheteshwar Pujara Move To Gloucestershire Off After Season Delay

Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara has often opted to play county cricket to improve himself as a batsman in the overseas conditions. But this season, he will not be able to up his game, as Gloucestershire has called off his move. The decision taken by the county club comes after the county season was delayed.

Pujara has earlier featured for Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire in the county cricket.

Cheteshwar Pujara was set to be second Indian cricketer to play for the club

The Rajkot batsman was set to be only the second Indian after former fast bowler Javagal Srinath to Gloucestershire. Srinath had plied his trade for the club in 1995. Since then none of the Indian cricketer have featured for the club, as Pujara had signed a deal to play six matches in February.

The club confirmed that it has “significantly reduced the number of staff and players actively working”, while also making “sizeable savings” for the months of April and May, the cricketer.com said in a report.

“Our financial projections show that, even on the worst-case scenario of no cricket at all this season, the club should be able to break even this year and be ready to face the future in a strong financial position when this crisis has passed,” the club was quoted as saying by The Cricketer.

“The ECB have been outstanding in their support of all First-Class Counties and the team there should be applauded for the speed and scale of their response to this crisis,” it added.

Dark clouds hover over County Championship

The county championship has been postponed till May 28, but as things stand, with the growing coronavirus pandemic concerns it looks unlikely that the season will get underway as per its re-scheduled date of commencement.

Some reports also suggest, if the season gets underway, it will be without any international players due to the lockdown imposed on most countries across the globe.