Tuesday 9 September 2014 10:07, UK
Leicestershire are to release seamer Anthony Ireland and top-order batsman Michael Thornely at the end of this season.
Zimbabwe-born Ireland, 30, is departing Grace Road despite finishing as the club’s leading wicket-taker in the NatWest t20 Blast in his two years at the club, with 32 wickets at an average of 16.90, including a best of 5-22 at Derbyshire.
He also claimed 13 List A wickets and 17 wickets in eight County Championship games at an average of 46.58.
Opener Thornely, 26, enjoyed an excellent first-class debut for Leicestershire in 2012 when he scored 97 and 131 at Glamorgan and he went on to make 817 first-class runs for the Foxes at an average of 24.02.
The Londoner also made 475 List A runs at an average of 27.94 and 64 runs in the T20 competition at 10.66 as well as taking 10 wickets in competitive matches.
Ireland and Thornely are the two latest players to leave the club, currently adrift at the bottom of LV= County Championship Division Two with just three matches to play, after the recent departures of Shiv Thakor and Nathan Buck.
Unlike Ireland and Thornely, all-rounder Thakor and pace bowler Buck have already signed contracts with new counties - Derbyshire and Lancashire respectively.
