HD Ackerman

Date: Wednesday 19 August 2009

Leicestershire County Cricket Club confirmed today that Hylton (HD) Ackerman would step aside from first team cricket for the remainder of the cricket season to allow 19-year-old Josh Cobb the opportunity to play in the county side.

HD has played a major part in Leicestershire cricket over the past five seasons, scoring more than 5,500 first-class runs and scoring sixteen first class centuries, averaging 47.5 in the process.

The prolific batsman has also scored over 3,000 one-day runs with four hundreds. He also played in the Twenty20 trophy winning team of 2006 and is the County's all-time leading runscorer in the Twenty20 Cup.

Chief Executive David Smith said: ‘’HD has played a big part in the development of both 19-year-old James Taylor and Josh Cobb and we feel the time is now right for Josh to be given the opportunity play in county championship cricket and stake a claim for a permanent middle order batting position.

"I wish to thank HD's loyalty and magnificent achievements in his five years at Leicestershire County Cricket Club, which I have witnessed both as a club member and as CEO.

"He has been an outstanding batsman and role model to our younger players and has shown great patience and understanding of the current transitional and developmental stage that the club is currently going through.

‘’He will leave a strong legacy behind when he returns to South Africa during September and we would like to take this opportunity to wish both HD and his wife Kerryn every success in the future. They will both be welcome visitors to Grace Road in the future’’.