Mustafizur gets visa, flies to England on Wednesday

Mustafizur Rahman has received visa after having to wait for several days and is all set to fly to England on Wednesday morning to join county team Sussex.

The 20-year-old seamer got his visa on Tuesday afternoon. His flight is due to leave on 10:15am on Wednesday.

The Bangladesh national team will begin their preliminary camp for the England series the same morning, but their pace ace will be off to that country at that time.

Mustafizur will play for Sussex in the Natwest T20 Blast and Royal London One-Day Cup. Each of the tournaments are being played among 18 teams who are divided into two groups of nine.

Sussex will play against Essex in the T20 Blast at Chelmsford on Thursday.

Taking this game into account, Mustafizur will be with the team for seven matches - considering both the tournaments - while the number will go up if Sussex qualify for the knockouts in either competition.

On Jul 1, Mustafizur told reporters, "It will be great if I can go to Sussex. England comes first [when talking about] cricket, so it will definitely feel good to be there. If I am given the opportunity I will try to give my best."

After the match against Essex, they will play against Surrey the following day in the T20 Blast.

Sussex will then take on Gloucestershire on Jul 24 and Hampshire on Jul 27 in the One-Day Cup before facing Glamorgan in their last group stage tie in the T20 Blast.

They are scheduled for One-Day Cup clashes against Somerset on Jul 30 and Kent on Aug 2.

With two points from four matches, Sussex are languishing at the bottom of the One-Day Cup table. In the T20 Blast, Mark Davis' men have 10 points from 11 matches and stand seventh.

Sussex announced the news of signing Mustafizur on Mar 2 earlier this year. He was supposed to go to England at the beginning of June.

But the youngster returned from the Indian Premier League with a hamstring injury that delayed his departure.

Sussex, however, did not give up and gave Mustafizur more time but the delay stretched on.

Mustafizur then regained his fitness at the start of this month before having to wait on the visa which comes around a week and a half after the Eid.

Bangladesh's top allrounder Shakib Al Hasan and batsman Tamim Iqbal had played in England's county cricket competitions.

Shakib represented Worcestershire in the One-Day Cup, T20 tournament (previously called Friends Life t20 from 2010-2013 before inception of Natwest T20 Blast in 2014) and County Championships.

Tamim played in the T20 tournament for Nottinghamshire.