Henry joined three other overseas cricketers to miss out on a county season this year.
New Zealand seamer Matt Henry is the latest among overseas cricketers to miss out on a county season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kent Cricket announced that his contract has been mutually withdrawn as there will be no cricket in the UK till May 28.
Henry was supposed to play the first seven games for Kent in the County Championship in what would have been his second stint with the club. However, he was forced to join the list of Cheteshwar Pujara, Nathan Lyon and Michael Neser to miss out on a county season as overseas cricketers.
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“Kent Cricket can confirm that New Zealand International Matt Henry will no longer be joining the Club for the first seven County Championship matches of 2020. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and disruption to the official start of the 2020 county cricket season, both the Club and player have decided to cancel plans which would have seen Henry return to Kent for a second time,” the club said in a statement.
The 28-year-old has a good relationship with the club and the players which were evident from the reactions of those involved when Henry signed to play for Kent for the second time. This good relationship has been revealed by the Director of Kent Cricket, Paul Downton.
Downton said, “Once the decision was announced by the ECB that there would be no cricket until at least the end of May it became inevitable the Matt would not be returning to Kent this season. The Club continues to enjoy a good relationship with Matt. He has many friends here and the overwhelmingly positive feedback we received when we announced he would return in 2020 is a measure of Matt himself: he's a fantastic person on and off the cricket field.”
“We'd like to thank Matt for his understanding in difficult circumstances. Hopefully another opportunity will arise in the near future which will allow him to join us once again,” he added.
(With inputs from kentcricket.co.uk)