The St Kitts and Nevis Patriots will not have the services of Rassie Van Der Dussen for the Patriots for the 2020 season of the Hero CPL.

The Patriots had selected the prolific T20 batsman during the CPL draft earlier this month.

The 31-year-old cited travel restrictions caused by the Covid19 pandemic as the reason why he will not be able to fly to the Caribbean for the tournament that is to be held in Trinidad and Tobago starting next month.

“Very sad to announce that I will, unfortunately, miss #CPL this year. Circumstances, lockdowns and closed borders made it impossible for me to get to the Caribbean in these times,” he said in a post on his Instagram account on Tuesday.

“Good luck to the @sknpatriots, a team close to my heart. I will be following the #biggestparty closely.”

Van Der Dussen has scored 406 runs for South Africa in 15 matches for South Africa after making his debut against Zimbabwe on October 9, 2018.

He was the leading run-scorer during the 2017–18 Sunfoil Series, with 959 runs in 10 matches and was the joint-leading run-scorer in the 2018–19 CSA T20 Challenge tournament, with 348 runs in 10 matches.

In franchise cricket, he has represented the Vancouver Knights in the players' draft for the inaugural edition of the Global T20 Canada tournament where he was also the leading run-scorer with 255 runs.

In October 2018, he was named in Jozi Stars' squad for the first edition of the Mzansi Super League T20 tournament.