Wiaan Mulder will play no part in Essex’s County Championship match at Warwickshire on Friday after flying back to South Africa for private reasons.
The seam-bowling all-rounder signed a short, three-month deal that was due to cover six first-class games and six T20 Blast outings. He has managed only two Championship appearances so far – a solid win away to Hampshire followed by defeat against Somerset – before asking to leave temporarily.
“Essex Cricket can confirm that Wiaan Mulder has returned home temporarily for personal reasons,” the club said on Wednesday. “The club is fully supportive of Wiaan’s decision to return home to South Africa and an update on his return to the club will be announced in due course. Wiaan will therefore miss the next round of the Rothesay County Championship against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.”
Mulder’s numbers to date are modest – 17 runs and one wicket at the Ageas Bowl, then scores of 0 and 31 against Somerset, where a back spasm limited him to just seven wicketless overs. Yet head coach Anthony McGrath is thought to value his balance to the side, especially given a crowded treatment room.
Essex are already without Jordan Cox, busy in the IPL with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and yet to debut there, while captain Tom Westley sat out the Somerset game after fracturing a finger. That absence brought 18-year-old Noah Thain a debut as the first concussion-type replacement under the ECB’s trial substitution rule – even though Westley’s injury was a finger, not a head knock.
Schedule-wise, Essex travel to Surrey on 24 April, have a rare week off, then welcome Hampshire on 8 May. Whether Mulder is back by then is unclear, and the county say they will only update supporters “in due course”.
Losing an overseas professional in mid-April is hardly ideal, but with six months of cricket ahead, the dressing-room mood remains calm. A senior player said privately that Mulder’s situation is “personal and respected”, adding, “we’ll just crack on”.
