Kolpaks is it killing south african cricket

[brockley]

Their are now 20 kolpak players in england mostly from south africa some from zimbabwe,these players can't play for the country.
With the ruling of 1 overseas players this is likely to double next season.
Question is will it kill off south african cricket,zimbabwe will lose players but little consequence they are stuffed nows anyways.
Note no windies players have signed off their careers in england.

[Perm]

I don't think so. South African cricket is very strong at the moment and has been for a few years now, I can't see it changing heaps in the next few years.

[Langeveldt]

Not really, most of the Kolpaks are either past it, or not that great to begin with.. The only player we've lost who's of any concern would be KP, who wasn't a Kolpak anyway.. SA cricket is still reasonably strong, no less so than a few years back..

[cover drive man]

Dont think so South Africa is very strong and Zimbabwe have never been great.

[Richard]

It is a worry to me, TBH. Most Kolpaks and EU-passport players are indeed pretty average ones (and a complete waste of the English game's money) but are you seriously telling me that the SA game wouldn't be better had it retained Pothas, Benkenstein, Kieswetter, van Jaarsveld, Ackerman, Henderson, Klusener, Willoughby, Kruis, Rudolph, Kruger, Botha, Trott, Dexter and Jacobs? 'Cos I don't think it would.

[Goughy]

The short answer is an obvious Yeah. The depth and quality of SA cricket has been impacted. It probably means little to the national side at the moment but the movement away from SA by the talented 2nd tier guys and many young players will weaken the development and the talent of young players coming through. It does this by reducing the competition for national team spaces and weakens the strength and depth of the domestic game.

You could make 2 (possibly 3) very talented SA cricket sides from the players in Franchise cricket. However, mainly, due to this 'brain drain' the standard drops pretty sharply after that. The loss of these players deeply impacts the overall depth of the available Protea players and the number of talented young players coming through.

I, personally, would encourage any South African that wasn't assured a test berth to go to England.

Greater opportunities + More Money = No brainer.

Especially for the guys that are talented but are of an age that SA cricket will ignore them or young guys that will struggle to get game time due to the cut back in the number of teams and many other players clogging the system and their development.

A few lists. No country can possibly claim that losing players in such numbers can be anything but a worry and a problem.

SA Kolpaks taken from this thread

who the 15 kolpak players

Greg Smith, Derbyshire
Dale Benkenstein, Durham
Grant Hodnett, Gloucestershire
Martin van Jaarsveld, Kent
Ryan McLaren, Kent
HD Ackerman, Leicestershire
Claude Henderson, Leicestershire
Charl Pietersen, Northamptonshire
Riki Wessels, Northamptonshire
Lance Klusener, Northamptonshire
Charl Willoughby, Somerset
Deon Kruis, Yorkshire.
Jacques Rudolph, Yorkshire
Garnett Kruger, Leicestershire
Arno Jacobs, Leicestershire

from the same thread,

SA Born and raised but playing in the UK on an EU passport

Michael Lumb- Yorks-SA
Ant Botha- Der- SA
Kevin Latouf- Hamts- SA
Nic Pothas- Hants- SA
Ryan ten Doeschate- Essex- SA
Marc Rosenberg- Leics- SA
Nick Compton- Midd- SA
Chad Keegan- Midd- SA
Ben Hutton- Midd- SA
Craig Kieswetter- Som- SA
Jade Dernbach- Sur- SA
Neil Carter- War- SA
Tim Groenewald- War- SA
Jonathon Trott- War- SA
Neil Dexter- Kent- SA

[BoyBrumby]

TBF if there's any chance they'll get international recognition they can quickly recant their Kolpak status (Harris did it last year following Boje's retirement), so it's win-win for the Kolpaks, really.

[TT Boy]

The Kolpak ruling has had a detrimental effect on South African cricket especially in regard to the representative sides (many of which are filled with cricketers who have zero chance of representing South Africa) whilst the influx of younger cricketers to England aside from the Golden Handshake generation is slightly disturbing. Although, Neil Manthorp’s ‘solution’ (similar to what BoyBrumby eluded too) sounds fairly sensible…

“The answer is to stop being nervous and resentful of county cricket and Kolpak contracts and emphatically embrace both. Encourage as many of our young players as possible to sign county contracts and then watch their form and make selections according to how they perform there. And then select them to play international cricket if appropriate.

But what about their contracts which stipulate they cannot play international cricket? Sure, one or two might decide to honour them and turn down the chance to play for their country but the rest can, and will, be bought out as easily as Paul Harris was from his Kolpak contract with Warwickshire last season…

The proviso, of course, is that the player is given a six-month contract by CSA, time enough to prove himself as an international player and be adequately compensated for the loss of his county income. If there is any spare money around, then that is how to spend it.”

The only negative consequence would be on English cricket for they would be financing the development of South African cricket.

CSA High Performance Manager Vincent van der Bijl has spoken about following a similar path but CSA initial retort is to create a trust fund for the most talented cricketers but cases like Paul Harris shouldn’t be anomalies one suspects.

[Richard]

Wouldn't it just be that much better if the new EU Constitution did indeed recognise the specific nature of sport, meaning that Kolpak and EU-passport players would become a thing of the past?

Then we'd not have to worry about English teams damaging South African prospects, South Africa leeching the finances of English cricket to develop their players, or anything else along those lines.

[marc71178]

Originally Posted by BoyBrumby

TBF if there's any chance they'll get international recognition they can quickly recant their Kolpak status (Harris did it last year following Boje's retirement), so it's win-win for the Kolpaks, really.

That is the only part of the ruling that I disagree with to be honest - IMO they only increase the quality of County Cricket (and if they didn't then the counties wouldn't sign them)

[BoyBrumby]

Originally Posted by marc71178

That is the only part of the ruling that I disagree with to be honest - IMO they only increase the quality of County Cricket (and if they didn't then the counties wouldn't sign them)

Yeah, in the short term they obviously do. I think it's the perception that they're short-term fixes that causes so much breast-beating tho, at least in part. For a county it's a no-brainer that if you can bring in a bloke who'll average 40+ or take 50 wickets and who won't count as overseas players that he'd be a better asset than a kid up from varsity who might score a few or take a few wickets this season, but who could be special in a year or two.

To be fair to the ECB they are at least trying to incentivise counties with the cash penalties for playing Kolpaks. £1100 per game or something I'd heard, but I could be wrong.

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Originally Posted by Langeveldt

Not really, most of the Kolpaks are either past it, or not that great to begin with..

Any chance of me getting a contract then? I could do with a few British Punts these days.

[Richard]

Not unless you've got a Spanish grandad, being a Kiwi.

[BoyBrumby]

Originally Posted by Richard

Not unless you've got a Spanish grandad, being a Kiwi.

He just needs to be creative! Andrew Mehrtens (kiwi union stand-off) applied for a South African passport (which he's entitled too because he was born there whilst his equally NZ old man played provincial Rugby over there) so he wouldn't count as an overseas player & Nathan Mauger (brother of Aaron) got a French passport because his granny was born in French Polynesia.

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Originally Posted by Richard

Not unless you've got a Spanish grandad, being a Kiwi.

So that's how old Wrigley's got away with it?

(Wrigley's - another piece of 'HeathDavisSlang' - meaning 'Craig Spearman' - this slang may be slightly 'Leyland' though)