Kent Cricket have announced the signing of right-arm fast bowling all-rounder Beyers Swanepoel on an all-format deal from 1st May until the end of the season and will replace Xavier Bartlett who now won’t be coming to Canterbury.
The 25-year-old has over 1,000 runs & 100 wickets in his 33-match first-class career to-date, with 127 wickets at an average of only 19.28, including seven five-wicket hauls. Swanepoel also has a first-class hundred to his name, and averages 27.05 with the bat in red-ball cricket.
An SA20 winner with Sunrisers Eastern Cape in 2023/24, Swanepoel won Best Men’s Bowler Awards at Cricket Eastern Cape in 2023 across all three formats of the game. Combined in white-ball cricket, he has 77 career wickets in 60 appearances.
Swanepoel could make his Kent debut in the Spitfires’ fourth Vitality County Championship match of the season away at Lancashire. He replaces Xavier Bartlett, who will now not feature for Kent in the Championship this year.
Cricket Australia have declined to issue a No Objection Certificate (NOC) in order to manage the now centrally-contracted Bartlett’s workloads after a busy Winter in which he featured heavily in the Big Bash and Sheffield Shield, as well as making T20I and ODI debuts for Australia.
On joining Kent, Swanepoel said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to join a historic county side such as Kent and to play in all formats of the English county game.
“I hope to learn a lot whilst I’m here amongst a very talented squad. I spoke to former Kent overseas players before I signed and they couldn’t recommend Kent highly enough as a place to come and improve my game in English conditions.
“I can’t wait to put on the Kent shirt and perform to the best of my abilities this Summer.”
Kent’s Director of Cricket, Simon Cook, said: “We’re really excited by the potential that Beyers has and what he can offer us this season.
“We looked very carefully at him earlier in the year but at that stage he hadn’t played the required games to qualify as a viable overseas signing for us.
“He’s a genuine allrounder who provides extra batting depth for us across all formats – a gap that we’ve looked to fill with our overseas players this year.
“Xavier Bartlett’s steep rise has been great to see. National Boards are always going to protect their best assets, so it wasn‘t a shock when we received news from Cricket Australia that they would be withdrawing his NOC.
“We were able to work quickly to secure Beyers’ signature, as he was in demand from other counties in similar situations. We’re all looking forward to welcoming Beyers to Kent this Summer.”