Northamptonshire’s overseas player attentions have turned towards Australian Trent Copeland after the contract offer made to Rory Kleinveldt was withdrawn.
The South African had been given a deadline of midday today (Friday) to accept the short-term deal that would’ve seen him in the County’s colours for the opening five County Championship and three CB40 games of the summer.
But a significant delay, which hasn’t been helped by the Indian Premier League auction that’s scheduled for this weekend, has left the contract untouched and the end result is that Kleinveldt will not be coming to Wantage Road this summer.
But the club are hoping to have the position filled in the near future and have made an offer to Copeland, who rejected their advances earlier in the winter.
The New South Welshman, who has three Test caps to his name, has been offered terms that would cover the first half of the campaign or nine Championship games in fixture terms.
And that would represent the ideal scenario according to chief executive David Smith who said: “Kleinveldt was unable to commit and it had gone on long enough.
“We tried to be patient but you can only wait so long and we’ve had to look elsewhere.
“We’ve put the offer to Trent, who has had a change of heart since we last spoke to him, and we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
“Finance isn’t an issue and he would be a good person to have on board.
“A longer deal is better for everyone and while it’s a shame that Rory won’t be coming, if we can get Trent then we’ll be happy.”
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