Cricket-News.Org

Northamptonshire County Cricket Club and their Director of Cricket, Kepler Wessels have today agreed to part company. Kepler joined the County in 2003 and in his first season with the Club got promotion to division 1 of the County Championship and the National Cricket League.

In the years following the Club has been forced to tighten its belt and reduce the size of the budget available for squad development. Despite this difficulty the team has maintained its Division 1 status in the National Cricket League and has figured prominently in the Twenty20 Cup.

However 2006 has been a difficult season with poor Cheltenham & Gloucester performances and Northamptonshire are currently lying in last place in the County Championship. Understandably a poor run of results had led to frustrations for the Director of Cricket, the dressing room and the Club and inevitably tensions run high in these situations. Kepler feels that he has now taken the Club as far as he thinks possible and has had conversation with the club recently. It is with this background that we have amicably parted company at this time.

The timing is important to allow planning for next season to take place in terms of any replacement for Kepler and to consider the make up of the playing squad.

We would like to place on record our thanks to Kepler for his efforts and successes he has achieved over the past four years. We wish him every success in the future.