Xavier Bartlett will join Kent for the Vitality Blast weeks after Cricket Australia blocked the fast bowler from playing for them in the County Championship.
Bartlett was originally signed for Kent’s first five Championship games, but CA denied him a No Objection Certificate on the eve of the season, a week after handing the 25-year-old a central contract. It was the first national deal Bartlett had earned after a breakthrough Australian summer in which he made his ODI and T20I debut and led the Big Bash League wickets list with 20 for Brisbane Heat.
Kent acted swiftly to replace him, signing South African bowling allrounder Beyers Swanepoel on an all-format deal which runs from May 1 until the end of the season. They had remained hopeful Bartlett would be able to uphold the white-ball element of the initial deal which amounted to at least eight Blast games. That has now been confirmed.
CA are understandably cautious with Bartlett’s workload, particularly when it comes to first-class…