Northants lose injured Kleinveldt

Rory Kleinveldt has been withdrawn from his Northamptonshire contract by Cricket South Africa, three days after he was unveiled by the county as their overseas signing for the season. Northants revealed CSA pulled Kleinveldt out of his deal after their medical team diagnosed him with a knee injury and said the "late decision... is extremely disappointing."

Northants acquired Kleinveldt's services as a replacement for Jackson Bird, who was due to play for them this season but had to pull out because of a back problem. Kleinveldt was to join the county on Wednesday for eight county championship matches and 10 T20 games, beginning with their four-day fixture against Yorkshire on April 20. His unavailability has left Northants still searching for an overseas professional.

Kleinveldt has not played an international since July last year, on South Africa's tour of Sri Lanka, but had been part of national squads since then. He has also turned out regularly for Cobras, his franchise team, for whom he took 18 wickets at an average of 14.33 in his last three first-class games.

It is also where he picked up his most recent niggle. Kleinveldt was ruled out of Cobras' final first-class game of the season last week after sustaining a knee injury in the match against Warriors the week before. That did not stop Northants from announcing Kleinveldt's signing on Tuesday.

Kleinveldt is the second South African player in the injury list. Yesterday CSA announced left-armer Lonwabo Tsotsobe could miss this July's visit to Sri Lanka because he requires ankle surgery and will be out of action for up to three months. They have not made any statement regarding Kleinveldt.

Despite Kleinvedlt pulling out of the county deal there are some South Africans in action in England. Graeme Smith is captaining Surrey, Alviro Petersen is back with Somerset, Ashwell Prince is playing his last season as a professional player at Lancashire and Kyle Abbott has started his time at Hampshire.