Sussex frustrated by Mustafizur delay

Mark Davis has spoken about Sussex's frustration in having to wait for Mustafizur Rahman, one of the club's overseas signings, to arrive. Mustafizur has been working to regain fitness after the IPL and his stint in England remains uncertain.

Davis, Sussex's head coach, said the club was struggling to find another replacement for Mustafizur, after South Africa allrounder David Wiese departed for the CPL. Wiese was initially signed as cover for two games at the start of June but ended up making four NatWest T20 Blast appearances. Ahead of their game against Gloucestershire on Sunday, Sussex will also be without Chris Jordan who is away on England duty.

"We have a couple of people but it is very late in the day so it is very hard to get replacements," Davis told the Brighton-based Argus. "The top players in the world have been signed, or are playing CPL, or their countries aren't allowing them to play. That's the frustration because we have chosen Mustafizur as probably the No. 1 bowler in the world in that format."

On June 9, the Bangladesh physio Bayjidul Islam had said that Mustafizur would take at least two weeks to be ready but last week, trainer Mario Villavarayan said he would require another month to recover from his injuries.

Sussex had earlier said they would be happy to wait for Mustafizur, at least until June 10, but that time has now passed. Davis said he had only been able to get advice from Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha but he was confident that Mustafizur would show up for his side.

"I spoke to the Bangladesh head coach and he said he would be assessed after two weeks, which is now," Davis said. "It hasn't been easy to nail Bangladesh down. Their coach has been the one I have got most direction from. But we are also dealing with physios and trainers who are putting things on the internet. I am sure we will get it nailed down."