Nottinghamshire have been forced to seek a replacement for Peter Siddle after he was banned from playing in this year’s Vitality Blast for participating in unsanctioned cricket overseas.
Australia seamer Siddle, 41, was signed as one of the club’s two overseas players for the competition along with South Africa all-rounder George Linde, but is now prohibited from playing professionally in the UK for six months after featuring in the World Legends Pro League earlier this year.
Under ICC regulations, to which the ECB adhere, any individual playing or coaching in ‘disapproved’ tournaments such as the legends event held in Goa faces punishment, including suspensions from participation of between six and 12 months.
Nottinghamshire released a statement on Tuesday confirming that Siddle, who has worked under head coach Peter Moores at Melbourne Stars during the past two winters, would not be returning to Trent Bridge following a 12-year absence due to personal circumstances.
However, Daily Mail Sport can reveal that a player who has also served Essex, Somerset, Lancashire and Durham is not permitted to feature in county action during the 2026 season.
‘We’re naturally disappointed that Peter won’t be able to join us this summer, as we were looking forward to having a player of his calibre and experience as part of our T20 squad,’ said Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket.
Peter Siddle has been blocked from playing for Nottinghamshire in the Vitality Blast this season after playing in an unsanctioned competition, the World Legends Pro League
The 41-year-old took 221 Test wickets while representing Australia between 2008 and 2019
‘We’ll now focus our efforts on securing the services of a replacement for this summer’s competition.’
Siddle is currently playing for Multan Sultans in the Pakistan Super League and is likely to be unaffected by the ICC ruling there, or when he returns to his native Australia, as not all full member boards follow the international protocols as rigorously as the ECB.
The fact that it is being strictly imposed also means that Samit Patel’s bid to play a 24th consecutive season of English domestic Twenty20 cricket is over.
Patel also featured in the World Legends competition, along with Stuart Broad and Alastair Cook, and must serve the same sit-out period as Siddle, whose signing at Trent Bridge was announced on February 5, just 24 hours after Patel’s Dubai Royals were crowned champions.
Now 41, Patel was in talks with several clubs in recent months to extend his career after leaving Derbyshire last summer.
He emerged as an option for Yorkshire before they secured Moeen Ali’s signature in January and was known to be on the radars of Kent and Warwickshire.
Patel twice won the competition during 22 years of service with Nottinghamshire, claiming the man-of-the-match award in the 2017 final for an unbeaten 64 versus Warwickshire and then bowling parsimoniously as Surrey were defeated at Edgbaston three years later.
A banker with the bat at No 4 and a canny left-arm spinner, he was the first Englishman to achieve the double of 5,000 runs and 250 wickets in T20 cricket.
Samit Patel will also have to sit out the Blast this season, despite attracting interest from Kent and Warwickshire
Patel, who played 36 ODIs and 18 T20 internationals across his career, is one of the most prolific wicket-takers in Blast history
Patel’s tally of 230 Blast wickets is second only to the haul of fellow slow left-armer Danny Briggs, of Sussex, while his overall T20 haul of 364 makes him the fourth most prolific in the format among English players, behind Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid and David Willey.
His ability to still perform at the highest level was recognised last year when he was called into the Hundred as a replacement player for Northern Superchargers, crunching 42 off 19 balls against Manchester Originals.
The kind of performance that suggested he, like fellow veteran Ravi Bopara – who smashed a memorable, match-winning Blast quarter-final hundred to shock Surrey at the Oval – could extend their careers, as the last two players that featured in the maiden season of T20 cricket in 2003 still active.
But a combination of Bopara focusing on coaching and Patel now being resigned to remaining on the sidelines this summer means it is not to be.
Meanwhile, it is uncertain whether former Durham and England cricketer Phil Mustard will be affected by the same regulations. Mustard played in the competition, but is a full-time umpire with the ECB these days and the ICC wording on ‘disapproved’ cricket relates to players, coaches and officials.
Nottinghamshire have now joined a scramble for overseas players for the Blast in circumstances they did not foresee. However, they could fall back on using another Australian Fergus O’Neill, viewed as something of a first-class specialist, or Kyle Verreynne, their other County Championship import, alongside Linde, whose replacement deal with Lucknow at the Indian Premier has the potential to delay his arrival. The IPL final is on 31 May, nine days after the Blast begins.
Yorkshire are also scouring a market depleted by the best 20-over cricketers playing at the IPL or PSL, and wanting to use May and June for recuperation, plus Major League Cricket in the United States overlapping with the end of the Blast – both finals are scheduled for July 18.
They have lost Victoria and Melbourne Renegades captain Will Sutherland days after Afghanistan bowler Naveen-ul-Haq – previously the competition’s most prolific bowler with Leicestershire – succumbed to the same injury. Both have stress fractures of the shoulder.
Nottinghamshire could now turn to their Australian bowler Fergus O’Neill, though he is viewed as something of a first-class specialist
Yorkshire have secured a quality replacement for Will Sutherland and Naveen-ul-Haq in the shape of Pakistan international Hasan Ali
In Pakistan’s Hasan Ali, who returned a competition-best strike rate of 10.8 among seamers in last year’s Blast in taking 25 wickets for Warwickshire, they have moved quickly to secure one quality replacement.
And despite having Logan van Beek available as a second overseas option, they will assess potential options as they bid to put a poor historic record behind them with a maiden T20 title.
Across the Pennines, Roses rivals Lancashire have completed the first ‘free agent’ signing for 2027 in Gloucestershire all-rounder Ben Charlesworth.
Players in the final years of their contracts are permitted to talk to prospective employers for the following season from June 1 onwards, but in an unusual move, Gloucestershire announced the impending departure of Charlesworth, who opens the batting in their Championship XI and was a contemporary of Jamie Smith, Jordan Cox and Lancashire’s George Balderson as an England Under-19 cricketer, on the eve of the season.
The 25-year-old will see out a campaign he has begun with 115 runs in six innings – including scores of 26 and 13 against Lancashire – before moving to Old Trafford in November.
Negotiations between counties and players in the final months of a contract tend to dominate the opening stanza of the Championship, but there has also been early interest in Sussex’s players given the uncertain future at Division One’s financially-stricken club, including newly-promoted Leicestershire considering a move for all-rounder Fynn Hudson-Prentice.
Lancashire have completed the first ‘free agent’ signing for 2027 in the shape of Gloucestershire all-rounder Ben Charlesworth
Sussex director of cricket Paul Farbrace will be leaving at the end of the season while there are no guarantees the rest of the squad will be kept together, regardless of where the club finishes.
Tom Alsop, one of those who have failed to make Sussex’s XI in their back-to-back wins over Leicestershire and Warwickshire this month that swiftly wiped out their 12-point deduction, could be the first out of the door this season, but only on a loan deal in a bid to get first-class action.
With 10 first-class hundreds, Alsop, 30, is at an age where he needs to be playing regularly but any temporary deal for him or another experienced campaigner Danny Lamb would be short-term, with both viewed as essential components of Sussex’s Twenty20 cricket.
