Sussex priced out of resigning Rana (From The Argus)

Sussex priced out of resigning Rana

10:00am Wednesday 15th February 2012 in Sport By Steve Hollis

Rana Naved has joined Derbyshire

Coach Mark Robinson admits Sussex were priced out of re-signing Rana Naved after the Pakistan seamer opted to join Derbyshire instead.

Sussex had been in talks about bringing the 33-year-old back to Hove for the T20 campaign – plus a handful of Championship games – as their second overseas player alongside Scott Styris but could not match the offer he received from Derbyshire.

Rana has featured in five seasons for Sussex since arriving in 2005 and took 16 wickets to help the Sharks reach the T20 quarter-finals last season, including a match-winning haul of 5-17 against Essex.

Robinson said: “We would have liked to sign Rana again but he got a fantastic offer from Derbyshire which was way out of our league.

“Rana has been a legend for us and we wish him all the best. It is disappointing but you can understand at his age that he needs to do what is right for his family.

“The other disappointing thing is that we might have put our hat in the ring for Albie Morkel (who has signed for Somerset) if we had known Rana wasn’t coming back. But there are still a lot of good players out there and we will continue to pursue those.”

Sussex reveal accounts for 2011 in The Argus tomorrow