Cheteshwar Pujara's Gloucestershire move off but club reveal encouraging financial forecast

Pujara had been due to play six County Championship matches for the club at the start of the county’s first season back in Division One

Cheteshwar Pujara’s overseas stint with Gloucestershire has been called off, it has been confirmed in a club statement, which also revealed positive financial projections even in the event of the entire county season being lost to the coronavirus pandemic.

Pujara had been due to play six County Championship matches for the club at the start of the county’s first season back in Division One. However, the Indian batsman will no longer be joining, with no cricket to be played before May 28 at the earliest – by which point Pujara’s deal would have come to an end in any case, with that initial suspension of the professional game spanning seven rounds of fixtures.

Surrey similarly have cancelled a deal for Australian seamer Michael Neser to join the club for the first half of the season.

Better news was delivered by Gloucestershire chairman John Hollingdale and chief executive Will Brown in an open letter to supporters on Thursday.

The club confirmed that it has “significantly reduced the number of staff and players actively working”, while also making “sizeable savings” for the months of April and May.

“Our financial projections show that, even on the worst-case scenario of no cricket at all this season, the club should be able to break even this year and be ready to face the future in a strong financial position when this crisis has passed,” it explained, while there was also praise given to the sport’s national governing body.

“The ECB have been outstanding in their support of all First-Class Counties and the team there should be applauded for the speed and scale of their response to this crisis,” it added.

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