Liam Plunkett leaves Yorkshire; becomes the first IPL casuality

English all-rounder Liam Plunkett has signed a three year deal with Surrey. He is currently playing for Yorkshire and will leave the county after the conclusion of this year’s domestic season. Back in April, he was chosen as a replacement of Kagiso Rabada for the Delhi Daredevils (DD) in the Indian Premier League. At that time, England’s county championship was about to start.

However, he chose the lucrative deal in the T20 event over first-class cricket. Along with him, another all-round cricketer David Willey also went to play in the IPL for the Chennai Super Kings. The last-minute omissions depleted Yorkshire to some extent and thereafter, Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire’s director of cricket, called for a cut-off window for late IPL call-ups.

We obviously thank him for that

While Willey signed a new contract, Plunkett’s tenure hasn’t been extended. In the meantime, Moxon thanked Plunket for his contributions but also mentioned the cricketer doesn’t offer value for money.  They are looking forward to building a team, which remains available throughout the entire domestic season.

“We are trying to assemble a squad that has availability and is within our budget to compete in all three domestic competitions. With that in mind, we are not in a position to be able to offer Liam a new contract. He has played a big part in our recent success and we obviously thank him for that and wish him well for the future,” Moxon was quoted as saying in ESPNcricinfo.

Meanwhile, Alex Stewart, the former English wicketkeeper and Surrey’s director of cricket sounded delighted on the new signing. “When a player of Liam’s ability and experience becomes available it makes perfect sense to sign him. Adding him to our squad gives us great options in all formats and we look forward to seeing him playing for Surrey over the coming years,” Stewart remarked.

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