While repeatedly delayed Brexit doesn’t happen, Kolpak will be with us.
TELFORD VICE in Cape Town
RUMOURS of the imminent end of the Kolpak era could be exaggerated by as much as two years, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. South Africans who thought some of their best players would not be able to choose county over country from next year will have to hold their breath until the start of July to find out whether the arrangement will continue — perhaps until the end of 2022.
The United Kingdom (UK) voted to leave the European Union (EU) in June 2016. But their departure has been delayed three times, largely because of squabbling between rival UK political factions. Now it seems Brexit is set to linger in purgatory still longer.
As things stand the transition period for the UK to leave the EU is set to expire on December 31. But the UK could be forced to ask the EU for a postponement. The time, effort and resources governments have devoted to fighting the spread of the virus have left little for other priorities — even those as important as planning for Brexit.
“Under these extraordinary circumstances I cannot see how the UK government would choose to expose itself to the double whammy of the coronavirus and the exit from the EU single market, which will inevitably add to the disruption, deal or no deal,” Christophe Hansen, a Member of the European Parliament from Luxembourg who is on the EU parliament’s international trade committee, said last month. “I can only hope that commonsense and substance will prevail over ideology. An extension of the transition period is the only responsible thing to do.” The UK government responded with: “The transition period ends on 31 December 2020, as enshrined in UK law, which the prime minister has made clear he has no intention of changing.” But Downing Street said much the same thing before each of the previous delays, only to reverse their stance.
The UK has until the end of June to ask the EU for an extension, which could last for up to two years. The EU would be only too happy to keep the UK on its books for as long as possible — the UK’s net contribution into EU coffers for 2018 was almost £9-billion.
The England Cricket Board (ECB) have told their 18 first-class counties that Kolpaks will no longer be considered domestic players after “the end of the government transition period”. So while the UK remains part of the EU, Kolpak will be part of South African cricket’s reality.
South African player agent Francois Brink concurred: “Logic tells you that everything in the world is on hold, so there is a good chance that Brexit’s implementation may also be postponed.” Until that happens “Kolpak can’t disappear; it will still exist”.
Graeme Smith, South Africa’s director of cricket, appears to have fallen prey to premature celebration on Friday, when he told an online press conference: “With Kolpak coming to an end the willingness is to always have our best players back in the system. With it fading away it’s really up to them players to back into the system and to make a decision on their career. From our perspective we want to encourage all our best players to play here, both domestically and then [to] give themselves the opportunity to be selected for the national side. That’s always the way we want to look at it. We don’t want to ever exclude players from being a part of our system. We understand that the landscape of the world game is very different now to what it was a number of years ago. So an open mind to how we look at these things is going to be key about we keep our best players — how we keep them motivated, how we keep them in our game.”
The Kolpak ruling, named after Maroš Kolpak, a Slovak handball player, who in May 2003 won a European Court of Justice case to enable him to play professionally in Germany, hinges on the Cotonou agreement, which allows the citizens of 78 countries — South Africa among them — to be regarded as locals when they work in the EU. Cotonou has been repeatedly extended since it came into force in 2003, and although the current version is set to expire at the end year it is far from dead. The upshot is that South Africans who play county cricket on Kolpak contracts do not fill the limited places reserved, in terms of ECB regulations, for overseas professionals. But the price is high: the counties insist that, for the duration of their contracts, Kolpak players relinquish their eligibility for their national teams.
Even so, 64 South Africans have resorted to Kolpak deals since Claude Henderson led the way in 2004. The UK’s strong currency, the superior professionalism of the county circuit and first-world living standards are the major driving factors. But some have sought to racialise the debate because selection for majority black South Africa’s domestic and nationals teams include a race component.
Some players have gone Kolpak in the autumn of their careers, others in the course of careers that were probably never going to reach the international arena. But a few have exercised the option in their prime, and after they have been blooded at the highest level. It’s those defections that have hit South Africa hardest, evaporating their pool of top talent and undermining trust in the system to retain quality players. The prime examples of the latter are Kyle Abbott, South Africa’s best bowler at the 2015 World Cup, and Duanne Olivier, who went despite securing a two-year contract with Cricket South Africa.
Others, like Simon Harmer, have been able to reach their full potential in England’s better resourced structures. Harmer took 20 wickets in five Tests between January and November 2015 before losing his place to Dane Piedt, who in turn was surpassed by Keshav Maharaj. Harmer first played for Essex on a Kolpak contract since 2017, and has been in the county championship’s top five wicket-takers in each of his three seasons. Last year he captained Essex to their first T20 title and finished as the first-class competition’s most successful bowler with 83 wickets at an average of 18.28. He was also the leading performer in South Africa’s first-class competition, for the Warriors, in 2018-19. No off-spinner in world cricket took more wickets than the 106 he claimed for Essex and the Warriors in 2018.
Like Kevin Pietersen before him, Harmer’s potential might have gone unfulfilled had he restricted himself to playing in South Africa — not because of any racially skewed political machinations but because English cricket is better equipped, in terms of finances, coaching and facilities, to bring the best out of players than any other country’s set-up.
Currently, Harmer is one of 17 South Africans who have Kolpak to thank for their county contracts. An 18th, Dane Paterson, is set to join them. Or maybe not. “He’s under contract with Notts, but it’s all on hold,” Brink, his agent, said, and cleared up earlier confusion by confirming that Paterson had indeed signed a Kolpak deal and not as an overseas player.
What with the uncertainty that has gripped world sport like the virus has the world itself, no-one knows when next counties, or any other teams, will play cricket. Nor whether signed, sealed contracts will need to be revisited or even cancelled.
Neither can we say that, once the Kolpak window has closed, the ECB won’t alter their rules to make provision for an additional foreign player on county staffs. Such contracts could well include a stipulation familiar to Smith and all cricketminded South Africans: that a certain category of overseas player will make himself unavailable for his national team. In the throes of so much change, so much could stay the same.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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