Pakistani pace ace heading to Rye

Altaf Ahmed will be Rye Cricket Club's overseas player during the 2019 season

Altaf Ahmed, a right-arm fast bowler from Peshawar in Pakistan, will be Rye’s overseas player as the club competes in Sussex Cricket League Division Three East for the first time.

The 25-year-old will join Rye at the end of April in time for the season-opening league fixture away to Portslade.

Ahmed made his debut in first class cricket for Peshawar Panthers in summer 2014 before switching to Habib Bank Limited in 2015. He has collected 38 wickets in 12 games, bowling at speeds around the 80-85mph mark.

Ahmed has been one of National Bank’s best performing first class bowlers this season, with two six-wicket hauls, and has bowled with raw pace and aggression.

He will also be a coach at Rye for the colts’ summer coaching programme on Wednesday and Friday evenings from May 1, and will support the colts’ games in the Ashford Junior Cricket League and the Sussex Junior Cricket Festival.

Rye Cricket Club, which boasts more than 100 members, will contest 130 fixtures during the coming season, with three Saturday league teams, six colts’ teams, a 20/20 team and a midweek friendly XI.

There will also be a winter and summer coaching programme for the colts, plus the club has run free taster sessions for local primary schools to offer coaching and raise awareness of the game.

What’s more, Rye Cricket Club will be organising the local primary schools’ cricket tournament in 2019 and on Tuesday August 6 will welcome the MCC to The Rye Cricket Salts for the biennial fixture between two of the oldest cricket clubs in the world.

Rye Cricket Club, meanwhile, is very grateful to all its sponsors for their support.

The club hopes its regular sponsors will be able to continue their support in 2019 and that new sponsors will come on board. The costs remain the same as 2018.

Sponsorship options - fixture card: ¼ page advert £25, ½ page advert £50, ¾ page advert £75, whole page £100.

Matchball sponsor: £25 - business name listed in fixture card and featured in local media prior to the game and after the game.

Advertising board sponsor: £200 - advertising board in front of Rye CC pavilion for 20 weeks from April 21 to September 1. The club can support the design and production of advertising boards.

2nd XI man of the match sponsor: £200 - sponsor 20 man of the match awards. Each man of the match to be photographed with sponsor name and image displayed in Rye Observer and Rye News.

Scoreboard sponsor: £300 - business name on the Rye CC electronic scoreboard and will feature in team photos used in local media.

Colts’ programme sponsor: £200 - Rye run five colts’ teams, with 75 colts and their parents/carers involved. The business name will appear in the fixture card and will feature in every one of the Rye colts’ match reports in the local media.

Pavilion sponsors: Negotiable based on requirements.

All sponsors will be hosted on the club’s website, providing links to their home pages.

If you wish to sponsor, please contact Martin Blincow by emailing [email protected] with the option(s) for sponsorship you would like to use.

If you wish to place an advert in the fixture card, please send the advert to [email protected] by March 9 so that the club can put the card together in time for the April 7 printing deadline.

Rye will launch the fixture card on Friday April 26 in the Sidney Allnutt Pavilion at the Cricket Salts from 7.30pm.