Surrey Sign Rao Iftikhar as Early Season Cover

9 March 2010

Surrey County Cricket Club can today announce the signing of Pakistani seam bowler Rao Iftikhar Anjum as early season cover for Piyush Chawla.

Rao Iftikhar, 29, is an experienced pace bowler who has played regular limited overs cricket for Pakistan in recent years and currently holds a very impressive first-class average of 23.87 with 388 victims from 96 games at a strike rate of 44.8, in line with the best bowlers in the world.

He will join up with Surrey at the start of the 2010 season and be available for the first three LV= County Championship matches of the year against Derbyshire at the Brit Oval; away at Hove against Sussex and the festival match against Worcestershire at Whitgift School. During this time, Piyush Chawla will be representing the Kings XI Punjab in the third Indian Premier League.

The signing will give Surrey Professional Cricket Manager Chris Adams and new captain Rory Hamilton-Brown added strength in the seam bowling department as well as experience at a time of year when wickets are traditionally seam friendly.

“Signing someone with the experience and proven wicket taking abilities of Rao Iftikhar will allow us to add a bit of quality to the squad and is very much in line with the signings that we have already made since the end of the 2009 season”, said Adams this week.

“Along with his impressive stats I believe Rao is the type of bowler who will perform well in English conditions and with Pakistan touring later in the year, he has a terrific opportunity to lay down a marker for selection. He can swing the ball well, has a very repeatable action and consistently bowls in the mid to high eighties. We look forward to his arrival.”

Speaking this week Rao Iftikhar Anjum said: “Playing for an English county has long been an ambition of mine and am I very much looking forward to joining Surrey in the coming weeks. Some of the greatest Pakistani bowlers of recent times have played for Surrey and I am honoured to be following in their footsteps.”