Clubs call for ban on overseas players in County Championship

Counties are discussing potential changes to the structure and schedule of the county game after the publication of recommendations by Andrew Strauss’s high-performance review group. Several county directors of cricket want the championship to be for England-qualified players only.

White-ball only central contracts are also set to be ended by the ECB as part of Strauss’s review. Rob Key, England’s managing director and other members of the ECB’s cricket committee want an overhaul of the central contract system which would mean multi-year, higher-value contracts for those playing Test cricket or multi-formats, but with white-ball only contracts being replaced by pay-as-you-play deals. The idea being to encourage players to aspire to Test cricket.

But it is he changes around overseas players in the domestic game that will be seen as the most radical. At present each county is permitted two overseas players per team (red-ball and limited overs), one more than was allowed before Britain left the EU, which cut off the “Kolpak” route, a system that had allowed additional foreign players if they were EU nationals or from countries that had free trade treaties with the EU, which in practice mostly applied to South Africans.

Some directors of cricket feel that it is now almost impossible to sign high-quality overseas players for a whole season because most are required for international matches or to play franchise T20 tournaments around the world, or both. Taking players under these circumstances poses administrative headaches for counties, and some question the value for money. There have also been some cases in which issues have arisen over work permits.

There have been some exceptions: the India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara has been a mainstay of the Sussex side for most of this season, and Derbyshire’s Shan Masood, who is Pakistani, is the third leading runscorer in Division Two.

There is a view among some directors of cricket and some within the ECB that the County Championship should be for the development of English players and that having two overseas players takes away opportunities for youngsters. The counter-argument is that overseas players increase the quality of the tournament and give young English players high-class role models.

Evidence from Strauss’s high performance review group shows that English players get less experience overseas than players from other countries — the average England Test debutant has played on average only 2½ first-class games overseas compared with 4.4 for Australians, 4.0 for New Zealand debutants, 3.8 for Indian players and 2.9 for Sri Lanka players.

England is one of the only countries that lets overseas players take part in their domestic first-class competition. English players are not allowed to take part in Australia’s Sheffield Shield competition, India’s Ranji Trophy or South Africa’s four-day domestic competition. There is a view among some that it is damaging English cricket to allow players from other countries to get more first-class experience and learn English conditions by playing in the County Championship when this is not reciprocated.

However, there is not yet consensus among the 18 counties over this issue, and any proposal to limit overseas players would need a two-thirds majority in favour of the change. It is unlikely that foreign players will be barred before 2023 season as some counties have already committed to overseas signings, but counties intend to continue the debate over subsequent seasons.

With one of the key principles of the Strauss review being to incentivise playing Test cricket, the introduction of pay-as-you-play deals would affect a handful of the 20 players who are on contracts worth between £200,000 (at the lower end of white-ball only deals) and £800,000 for the most experienced Test or multi-format players, who earn more than £1 million a year once match fees and win bonuses are factored in.

One of the key principles of Strauss’s review of English cricket, which published its initial recommendations last week, was that there should be higher incentives for those wanting to pursue a Test career.

Of the 20 players used in England’s limited-overs series against India and South Africa in July only four, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Dawid Malan had central lower value white-ball contracts with three others — Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes and Sam Curran — having higher-value multi-format contracts. All the other players were paid on a series fee basis on top of their existing county contract.

New central contract deals will be announced in October although it is possible that substantial changes to the system may not be implemented until next year.

– The Times

Originally published as Clubs call for ban on overseas players in County Championship