JCT600 Bradford League leaders Woodlands must manage without their overseas player Sarfraz Ahmed for the rest of the season.

The 38-year-old turned his ankle last Sunday as part of the team’s warm-up against Wrenthorpe in the Black Sheep Yorkshire Champions’ Trophy semi-final.

However, it isn’t an injured ankle that is keeping the Pakistani on the sidelines. It is the much more important issue of the death of his father.

Woodlands’ secretary Brian Pearson explained: “Saffy range me on Tuesday afternoon to tell me that his father, who was in his 70s, had died suddenly.

“Saffy was devastated. He could hardly speak, and we managed to get him on a 9.30pm flight from Manchester to Pakistan.

“The funeral was due in two days’ time but I understand that they could have held it back.

“The most important thing is for Saffy to be with his family, who he keeps in touch with via phone, Facebook and Skype.

“He has left all his cricket gear behind and I am not expecting him to return during the season but we do expect him to be back next season.

“Saffy has been here for 12 years and considers us at Woodlands to be part of his extended family. We have looked after him and he has looked after us. He gets offers every year from other clubs – but where do you go after 12 years?

“His wicket-taking and economy rate are still excellent, and he is always likely to get 30 or 40 runs for us with the bat.

“But he very rarely drops a catch either. When he is bowling he is at third man but when he is not bowling he is a very safe pair of hands in the outfield.”

Pearson added of Sarfraz: “He is part of the Sialkot Stallions team, which also includes Rana Naved ul-Hassan, which won their national twenty20 competition, and he will therefore be going to South Africa for the Champions League in October.”

As for the soccer injury, Pearson said: “Saffy is not a footballer and turned an ankle. It just buckled.

“He bowled one over in the match but felt some discomfort.

“Saffy goes for a run every day but he is not as young as he was. He bowled with an injury for half of last season and earlier this season had a hamstring strain which affected him for four or five weeks.

“Fortunately it rained for two of those weekends so he was able to recover.”

Lightcliffe’s director of cricket Chris Taylor reckons that no-one will catch Woodlands for the Division One title.

Pearson is not quite so bullish but did say: “We play Saltaire on Saturday, who always give us a good game, and we are at Pudsey Congs on September 1 and at Farsley on September 9, both of which are must-win games for them in their battle to stay up.

“We also play East Bierley (currently third) on September 8 at our place, and it depends what our lead is by then.

"It is 45 points at the moment, and the chasers are relying on us losing and them winning but if we still have a buffer of 40 points or so in two games’ time then I will be much more confident.”

Top matches on saturday are Cleckheaton (second) v Lightcliffe (fourth) in Division One and Keighley (fourth) v Yeadon (second) in Division Two.