Will Davis, Ed Barnes, Nick Welch, Arron Lilley and Scott Steel leave the club after seeing their contracts come to an end, joining Durham-bound duo Callum Parkinson and Colin Ackermann, whose departures were announced in June.
Michael Finan will also end his spell with the Foxes, after the club and player mutually agreed to terminate his deal a year early.
After arriving from Derbyshire ahead of the 2019 season, Davis took 86 wickets across all three formats for the Foxes, headlined by returns of 8/87 during the County Championship clash with Middlesex in July 2021. The 27-year-old was also part of Leicestershire’s Metro Bank One Day Cup winning side this summer, taking a stunning diving catch at deep mid-wicket as a substitute fielder in last month’s final.
Barnes joined from his native county Yorkshire prior to the 2021 season and went on to claim 54 wickets in his 37 appearances for the club, bested by his maiden five-wicket haul against former side Derbyshire.
A handy batsman too, the Yorkshireman helped set a club record partnership for the eighth wicket with Harry Swindells during the County Championship trip to Taunton in 2021. The pair added an unbroken 203, with Barnes making 83 not out before rain scuppered hopes of a maiden century.
Zimbabwe-born Welch signed in the Covid-hit 2020 season, recording 738 runs in his 36 appearances for the Foxes, headlined by a maiden career hundred in the One Day Cup win against Surrey in 2022.
Big-hitting all-rounder Lilley became a Fox in 2019. Predominantly used in white-ball cricket, he smashed 1,671 runs in Leicestershire colours, including 1,226 in T20 cricket – topped by a swashbuckling 99 not out at home to Yorkshire in 2021.
Similarly, Steel also appeared most frequently for the club in T20 cricket – scoring 500 runs at 26.31 from his 20 matches in the Vitality Blast, with a best of 72 coming at Edgbaston against the Birmingham Bears during the 2022 campaign.
Finan made his professional bow in the One Day Cup at the back end of the 2022 season, before making a fifty on first-class debut away at Nottinghamshire that September. The left-armer claimed 28 wickets in his sole year at Uptonsteel County Ground.
Paying tribute to the departing players, Director of Cricket, Claude Henderson, said:
“We would like to thank each individual player for their contributions to Leicestershire CCC across their respective stays at Grace Road. All eight have been great ambassadors for the club and we wish them every success in their next chapter.”
