Nottinghamshire sign Zimbabwe Under-19 wicketkeeper Dane Schadendorf on two-year deal

Nottinghamshire have announced the signing of Dane Schadendorf, a teenaged wicketkeeper who played for Zimbabwe in the 2020 Under-19 World Cup, on a two-year contract.

Schadendorf became a viral hit in the warm-up matches ahead of the tournament, thanks to a legside stumping in a fixture against New Zealand that evoked MS Dhoni in his prime. He also made 81 against eventual finalists India in a warm-up match, though was less successful in the World Cup itself with 138 runs in nine innings.

This stumping from Zimbabwe U19's Dane Schadendorf is out of this world.

pic.twitter.com/P9Ml6hz9q6

— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) January 14, 2020

He was born in Harare, but will qualify as a local player in county cricket thanks to a British passport. He had played club cricket for Caythorpe as well as for Nottinghamshire's Under-18s and second XI in the 2020 season.

"My game is probably more suited to white-ball cricket at the moment, but I'm working really hard on my red-ball game, and I think I'm getting better," Schadendorf said. "My aims for the next year or so are just to get off to a good start here, score as many runs as I can, and try to stake my claim for a place in the first team."

Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire's director of cricket, said: "We believe there's a high ceiling of potential there… we hope to see him pushing for a place in our first team in the near future."

Schadendorf follows his compatriot Nick Welch in signing a county contract. Welch, a 22-year-old top-order batsman, gained British citizenship in September and played five games for Leicestershire in the T20 Blast.

Welch will play for Mountaineers in the Logan Cup, Zimbabwe's major domestic competition, which started on Wednesday. There is further representation from county cricketers in the tournament in the shape of Shane Snater, the Essex seamer, and Ben Curran, the Northamptonshire opener and brother of Sam and Tom, who will both play for Southern Rocks.