Kent, Abdulla not retained by Dolphins

The Dolphins will not renew the contracts of allrounder Jon Kent and left-arm seamer Yusuf Abdulla for the 2011-2012 season. The decision was made in keeping with the franchise's policy of blooding young talent, which started in February 2010 when they axed five senior players, including Andrew Hall.

Kent, who will turn 32 next month and represented South Africa in two ODIs, has played for the Durban-based team for 11 seasons. He has a first-class batting average of 35.77 and was one of their strike bowlers. Although an experienced campaigner, he will be out of contract because the Dolphins have decided that they need to focus on development.

'Unfortunately for Jon, the focus of Dolphins is to develop a team that will be successful in a couple of years. In order to achieve this, opportunity needs to be given to younger players to develop their skills and gain match experience," Jesse Chellan, chief executive of Kwa-Zulu Natal Cricket Union said. "Going forward, it is a concern that Jon would block the path of a young player."

Abdulla, who made his name during second season of the IPL in 2009 in South Africa with the Kings XI Punjab, has played two Twenty-20s for South Africa, but has seen his career slide downhill in the past 18 months. He has struggled to recover from injury, battled with his weight and failed to make the Dolphins team this season. "Yusuf has struggled with fitness and form for the past two seasons and moving forward we will be investing in a younger generation of bowlers," Chellan said.

While both Kent and Abdulla have fallen out of favour with their franchises, up north at the Titans, Blake Snijman has voluntarily opted to end his career. Snijman announced his retirement, even though he is only 25 years old, in order to further his business interests. Snijman made his debut for Gauteng in the 2003-04 season, where he become an accomplished opening batsman. He leaves the game with a first-class batting average of 31.36 and a List A average of 32.75.

He moved to the Titans during the 2006-07 season and was part of the squad that won the SuperSport Series in 2008-09, the MTN limited-overs competition twice and the Standard Bank Pro20 in 2007-08. "I have been giving my career much thought over recent months and have decided that I will be retiring from cricket at the end of the current 2010/2011 season. I would especially like to thank the players. I have loved spending time with them and building friendships," Snijman said.