COVID-19: Cheteshwar Pujara not to play for Gloucestershire

Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara will not play for Gloucestershire club in this season, the club confirmed on Thursday.

Pujara signed a deal in February to represent the County for the first six matches of the Championship. He was set to become Gloucestershire's first Indian player after Javagal Srinath in 1995.

But with the first seven rounds of the Championship postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and international travel severely limited, he will be unable to fulfil his deal.

"We spent much of the winter preparing for the season in this, our 150th anniversary year, and we know it is a deep disappointment to all staff, players and everyone involved with the club that the season has been delayed," Gloucestershire's chairman and chief executive said in a statement.

"We will also now miss the opportunity to see Cheteshwar Pujara play for the mighty Glos in the 2020 season which we know our supporters were really looking forward to," it added.

Gloucestershire also confirmed that the club has "significantly reduced the number of staff and players actively working", and that it has made "sizeable savings" for 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," the statement said.