Brexit could help SA stop Kolpak bleeding

If you want to blame anyone for South African cricket’s Kolpak crisis, blame Thabo Mbeki.

Times Select

TELFORD VICE in London

UNTIL Tuesday, this week’s expected announcement of Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) list of contracted players was a bit of bureaucratic bumf.

Who would pick up the internationally retired — though frenetically busy — AB de Villiers’ not inconsiderable salary?

Would the suits smile on Zubayr Hamza and Rassie van der Dussen?*

Would Chris Morris be kept on the books considering, partly because of injury, he had featured in only four of the 33 games South Africa had played since the previous list was unveiled in March last year?*

There were questions, but their answers promised to be clearcut.

Then, on Tuesday, Duanne Olivier became the 42nd South Africa player to sign a Kolpak contract — thus taking his name out of the hat for international selection — and everything changed.

Now CSA’s list will be scrutinised for suggestions of who might have been signed in a desperate bid to retain their services, and who has not been included because, probably, they were on their way to England before Brexit changes everything again when it happens on March 29.*

If it happens, that is: speculation that the United Kingdom’s increasingly messy separation from the European Union is rife.

If and when Brexit does arrive, the Kolpak ruling — which allows EU citizens to ply their trade across its members’ 28 countries without being considered foreigners, and thus escape quotas for homegrown employees — will no longer apply in the UK.

South Africans benefit from the Kolpak arrangement because in June 2000 their country signed the Cotonou Agreement, which cleared the red tape from the path of citizens of 78 African, Caribbean and Pacific nations who want to work in the EU.

So, if you want to blame anyone for South African cricket’s Kolpak crisis, blame Thabo Mbeki, who was the president in June 2000.

Almost 19 years on there remains little CSA, Zimbabwe Cricket or the West Indies Cricket Board can do to plug the leaking away of the talent they have nurtured.

As TMG Digital reported on Thursday, CSA and the South African Cricketers’ Association are determined to create and maintain an environment that is attractive to the country’s players. But there’s no effective defence to the twin threats of hard currency and First World living conditions.

Even so, cricketminded citizens of the affected countries, fuelled by a misplaced sense of patriotism, tend to take personally the news of another Kolpak signing from their ranks.

The fact that players are professionals who represent nothing and no-one but themselves and the teams they play for, and wouldn’t dream of wearing their national team’s badge if they weren’t paid handsomely to do so, fails to cut through the emotion.

West Indies captain Jason Holder has made an interesting suggestion to try and change that reality.

“Prob­a­bly the ICC [International Cricket Council] and FI­CA [the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations] needs to get to­geth­er and in­sti­tute a sub­stan­tial min­i­mum salary so that play­ers will feel com­fort­able com­ing home to rep­re­sent their coun­try,” Holder was quoted as saying by the Trinidad Guardian on Wednesday.

“What they al­so need to do is to make sure that there is a win­dow for these do­mes­tic [T20] leagues, so that play­ers play for their na­tion­al team. [We] don’t want to con­tin­ue los­ing play­ers to these leagues and al­so things like Kol­pak.”

Would that work? Probably not.

Brexit would do the trick, but probably only until Britain and countries like South Africa make trade agreements.

Soon, not even a national contract could be enough to stop the northward flow of the cricket economy’s most prized assets.

* Cricket South Africa’s list of contracted players was announced on Friday and did not include Hamza, Van der Dussen or Morris.