South African professional cricketer Keshav Maharaj was signed by Middlesex Cricket for the upcoming County Championship and the T20 Blast 2023.
Middlesex Signs Keshav Maharaj
Maharaj will be Middlesex’s second overseas signing, joining countryman Pieter Malan. According to the club, Maharaj will miss the first two county games and will feature in the next eight red-ball games.
“I’m really excited to be linking up with such a professional and experienced county and am looking forward to wearing the Middlesex colours and calling the Home of Cricket my home,” Maharaj said. “I hope I can contribute to the team’s success across the various formats and am excited to form part of the Middlesex family.”
Alan Coleman, Middlesex’s Director of Cricket, said that the camp is excited to have a player of Maharaj’s calibre. He said that Maharaj is a world-class talent and that will help them compete against the biggest team in top-flight this season.
“We are delighted that Keshav has signed for Middlesex this season and are really excited to have someone of his calibre and experience joining us for the first four months of the season,” Middlesex’s Director of Cricket, Alan Coleman said.
“Two hard-fought games against Nottinghamshire last season, who came up from Division Two with us, showed us just what we’ll be facing week in week out this coming season, so we felt it was essential that we brought in someone of world-class talent, with the quality of Keshav, to enable us to better handle the challenges that top-flight cricket will bring. The young spinners we have in our squad will benefit enormously from having Keshav with us this year.”
The South African made his international debut in 2016 and has since played 100 times for his country, making 48 Test appearances and 52 appearances in both white-ball formats, taking 206 international wickets in that time.
After appearing for Lancashire in 2018, Maharaj played five matches for Yorkshire in the 2019 County Championship and bagged 38 wickets at an average of 18.92. In First-Class cricket he has taken 563 wickets in all, with a best bowling return of 9 for 129, and in the T20 format, he has picked up 109 wickets with best figures of 4 for 19.