Rival offer caused Kruis to leave Yorkshire

11:15pm Sunday 12th October 2008

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Former Yorkshire fast bowler Deon Kruis will sign a contract with another English county sooner rather than later.

That is the view of a disappointed White Rose director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon, who earlier this week had to concede defeat in his attempts to get the 34-year-old South African to sign a new contract at Headingley.

"I am very disappointed," said Moxon. "It would appear that he has got another offer from elsewhere.

"We have known for some time that other parties were interested in signing Deon. Usually these things get sorted quite quickly.

"We offered him what we thought was a very good contract, but I guess it is his prerogative not to sign it."

Kruis, who has been with Yorkshire since 2005 as a Kolpak player, was the county's leading wicket-taker in 2005 and 2006.

But ever since he claimed four wickets for just three runs from 15 balls to help secure Yorkshire's promotion to Pro40 Division One with a win at Northamptonshire early last month, it seems Yorkshire have been more confident about a deal than Kruis.

That day Kruis wanted a two-year contract, while Moxon spoke about just offering one year. That seems to have been the stumbling block.

However, as one leaves, another player could be set to sign on the dotted line.

Former England batsman Moxon revealed that he is currently in talks with a potential new signing, but would not divulge whether that was a bowler, batsman or even a wicketkeeper.

"We are potentially looking at one player coming in," he said, while confirming that all the contract renewals with the rest of the current staff have now been tied up.

But he continued: "We still have to look at the Rana (Naved-ul-Hasan) situation. We are still unsure what the situation is going to be with his Indian Cricket League (ICL) connections."

Pakistani overseas bowler Rana, who has one more year left on his contract, today featured for the Lahore Badshahs in the opening game of the second edition of the much maligned ICL.

It is still looking likely that Yorkshire will be banned from entering the Twenty20 Champions League event next year if they win the Twenty20 Cup with Rana as part of their first-team squad.

But in terms of a replacement for Kruis, Moxon will give his youngsters the first chance to prove they are ready to step up to the plate.

"Steve Patterson has earned the right to get another chance in the first team," Moxon added. "He did very well last season when given an opportunity. I was also really pleased with Ajmal Shahzad's consistency in performance towards the end of the season."