Visa issues have prevented South African fast bowler Ottneil Baartman from joining Hampshire for the remainder of the T20 Blast. Baartman played in six matches during South Africa’s run to the T20 World Cup final. He was scheduled to play for Hampshire in their final six group games, but unspecified “visa issues” delayed his arrival. With Hampshire’s quarter-final hopes dwindling, the club announced on Friday that it had canceled his contract.
“We would like to wish Ottneil all the best and hope to see him in a Hawks shirt in the future,” Hampshire said in a statement. Baartman initially signed as a replacement for Naveen-ul-Haq, who withdrew from his Hampshire contract due to “personal reasons” and now plays for the Texas Super Kings in Major League Cricket.
Hampshire, with two wins, three no-results, and five defeats, currently sit seventh in the nine-team South Group of the Blast ahead of Friday night’s match against Gloucestershire at the Ageas Bowl. The top four teams qualify for the quarter-finals, meaning Hampshire might need to win all four of their remaining games to advance.
“We’ll have to do some maths to see if we can still qualify,” coach Adi Birrell said following their recent defeat to Sussex. “I can’t really think that two wins out of ten gives us a chance of getting through to the quarter-finals, but we’ll have to look at it. We had three rained-off games, which gave us a few points, but we’re not playing well enough to go through. We were a bit off in all departments [against Sussex], as we have been throughout the campaign and We haven’t really put in a good performance in all departments.”
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