The England & Wales Cricket Board is planning take the counties to task as a number of Kolpak players are flooding the county as the overseas cricketers look to exploit the loophole before Brexit is expected to close it off. The ECB will later draft a new memorandum of understanding with the counties and the influx of Kolpak players this year will be part of those discussions. South Africa’s Marchant de Lange became the 11th Kolpak to sign for a county this winter when he joined Glamorgan. A county can save money when a Kolpak is taken, but a local player is suffered.
However, there is little that can be done legally while Britain is still a member of the European Union. Instead the ECB can incentivise counties financially as part of the next MoU for fielding England qualified players, making it in turn less attractive to sign Kolpaks, or even increase the financial deductions levied for picking Kolpak players.
Several cricketing countries including South Africa, Zimbabwe and most Caribbean islands are signatories to the Cotonou Agreement, the free trade deal that allows access to the EU. The ECB thought it had stemmed the flow of Kolpaks three years ago when counties were fined £1,100 per match for every non England qualified player they picked. But the economic situation in countries like South Africa has resulted in better players opting for the Kolpak route and counties viewing them as a financial risk worth taking.♠
David Letherdale, the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association said that it was disappointing that some counties have felt the need to sign players as Kolpaks or on EU passports instead of developing and producing home-grown players themselves for the future benefit of English cricket. “We are concerned that the number appears to have risen again in recent months. It is a situation that gives us cause for concern and one that we will continue to monitor.”
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Who is a Kolpak?
It is a ruling that means people from countries that have free trade agreements with the European Union have the right to work and live in the EU. It is named after Slovakian handball player Maros Kolpak who took his case to the European Court of Justice when he lost a contract at a German club because they already had two non-EU qualified players. Kolpak won and, like Jean-Marc Bosman in football, his name became a handy way to describe players fitting the new criteria.
