Weekes to leave Middlesex after 16 years

With opportunities increasingly limited at Middlesex, Paul Weekes is looking elsewhere © Getty Images

Paul Weekes, Middlesex's 36-year-old allrounder, has requested to leave the club after 16 years. Weekes has had limited opportunities in the first team this past two years and has played just one Championship game and three C&G Trophy matches so far this season.

"Paul wishes to play first team cricket and appreciates his opportunities to do so at Middlesex are currently limited," read a club statement.

Weekes, who made his debut against the touring New Zealanders in 1990, has scored 10,736 first class and taken 300 wickets. A mainstay of Middlesex's lineup throughout the 1990s, his crab-like stance at the crease belies a left-hander who, while not the most elegant, can score quickly and enterprisingly. In 1996, against Somerset at Uxbridge, he became one of a select band of Middlesex players to have scored hundreds in both innings of a match (171* and 160).

He has often been shifted up and down the order, and used as a pinch-hitter in one-day cricket. Indeed, his nagging offspin has been most effective in the shorter game where his 324 wickets have cost 28.94 each.