West Australian is club’s fourth overseas seamer competing for two spots
Charlie Stobo celebrates a breakthrough • Getty Images
Stobo, 29, has taken 55 first-class wickets at 24.98 and has signed a deal from May 20 until September 16 that covers all formats of the game. The ECB changed its regulations last year to allow counties to register up to four overseas players simultaneously, with two permitted in the playing XI in each of the County Championship, Metro Bank Cup and Vitality Blast.
While Stobo is uncapped at international level and yet to make his T20 debut, ESPNcricinfo understands that he qualifies to play professionally in the UK thanks to an ancestry visa.
Kent were blind-sided shortly before the start of the season when Cricket Australia changed the conditions of Bartlett’s No-Objection Certificate, blocking him from featuring in the Championship. They have since made two signings to help them cover for his absence, with South African seamer Swanepoel due to join the squad ahead of their Championship match away at Lancashire on Friday.
Agar, who was rested for Kent’s defeat against Surrey due to a niggle, is available until the end of July and Bartlett is still due to play the first eight group games in the Blast. Swanepoel is expected to be available across formats until the end of the season in late September.
“We’ve been keeping a track on Charlie for a while now and we’re very pleased that we’ve been able to get him on board for a substantial part of our season,” Simon Cook, Kent’s director of cricket, said.
“We’ve identified that he has the attributes that will be successful at Canterbury and will add to our squad depth and give us the ability to rotate players, especially bowlers, to better manage their workloads and get the optimum out of everybody.”
Stobo said he was excited to join his compatriots at Kent. “I’m looking forward to linking up with a few lads that I know already, join a bit of an Aussie takeover with Wes Agar already there and Xavier Bartlett set to join soon, and being a part of a squad with a lot of talent. I’m very thankful for the opportunity to play for Kent, which is an exciting new challenge for me.”
Kent said in a statement that both Stobo and Swanepoel will be available for their Metro Bank Cup campaign, which starts in late July.
