Shadab Khan and D’Arcy Short’s Surrey contracts terminated

Surrey has cancelled the contracts of their overseas stars- Shadab Khan and D’Arcy Short- after the postponement of the 2020 edition of the T20 Blast. Earlier, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced that there won’t be any profession cricket before July 1. Surrey has also deferred Michael Neser’s contract after the first seven rounds of the county championship were suspended.

Earlier, the coronavirus pandemic forced Essex to push Australia’s Peter Siddle’s contract. From Yorkshire, Ravi Ashwin, Keshav Maharaj and Nicholas Pooran lost their contracts. Matt Henry, Glenn Maxwell, James Faulkner, BJ Watling and Nathan Lyon are some of the other players to have had their contracts terminated. As far as Surrey is concerned, the decision was taken after mutual agreement.

This is the most sensible decision for both Shadab and Short

“Given the postponement of [the Blast] and the current uncertainty around the makeup of the domestic season … it was mutually agreed that the players’ contracts would be cancelled,” Surrey was quoted as saying in a statement, reported by Cricbuzz.

“I would like to thank both Shadab and D’Arcy and their management companies for their understanding of the current situation and the impact these testing times are having on our game,” Alex Stewart, Surrey’s Director of Cricket, said.

“While we continue to prepare for cricket at The Kia Oval this summer, uncertainties around restrictions and scheduling across the world and here in the UK means this is the most sensible decision for both the players and the club for now,” Stewart, who’s also a former England cricketer added.

Shadab and Short were also set to take part in the inaugural edition of the Hundred, which has now been postponed until 2021. The eight-team tournament was scheduled to be held from the mid of July, but due to the restrictions of late, there were uncertainties over the tournament.

Moeen Ali, the skipper of Birmingham Phoenix, also wanted the event to be postponed. He felt that the Hundred is a big thing in England cricket and shouldn’t be launched in front of empty stands. Recently, the Brits had their Test series in Sri Lanka cancelled due to the grave situation in the world.