Alright! That’s what I’m talking about!Finally, people have decided to listen to the BNP, and keep the English county league for the English. Out with those nasty foreigners.
A report in today's Daily Telegraph claims that the ECB is set to eradicate the Kolpaks and throw a tightened overseas player policy into the mix. To quote:
“Pending any unforeseen loopholes in EU law, any player not holding a British or EU passport will need to have played five Tests or 15 one-day internationals in the preceding two years (the final criteria have yet to be agreed, but must not be over-discriminatory) in order to be signed by a county. That way, the quality of imports goes up (counties can still sign overseas stars) while their numbers come down.”
This is an interesting move, and I the Twickeneese Panopticon, didn’t see it coming. This may be a little short sighted: consider the West Indies greats of the old, who learnt a lot of their cricket in an English county. It is not naïve to suggest that England is still an important supplier and polisher of international cricket talent.
It’s a bit like Sandhurst, only with less grooming of blood-thirsty dictators to be.
I have long hated this Kolpak business. It’s cheating, to be honest.
The reason that it was brought about is not due to globalisation or Evil Germans, but the enhancement of county cricket’s quality and the greater intensity that this demands. Given the heaps of counties out there, there is simply no way that weedy bumpkinshires could produce the required number of nut-case, Aussie wannabies.
So they turned to the next available source of bastardliness: South Africa.
But, as with any market, once a shock has been absorbed, the system will be re-structured and, I suspect, some losers will be eaten up, or fall off completely.
The collapse of certain county sides was perhaps the ECB’s original intention when they bisected the championship. It’ll be sad for some. But, I’ll certainly cheer once some of the smaller, more pointless clubs, like Surrey, finally get the chop.
7 comments:
Combo sort of reminds me of you.
Sorry to actually stay on topic, but I don't get it. what is the point of these extra criteria? if there are no "kolpak" players then all you're left with are overseas players anyway - just two isn't it? so how does this ODI / Test history doohicky actually matter?
Spiggles, Spiggles, Spiggles.
Spiggles.
If you insist that the only foreign player can be an expensive player, this prices the weeny, crappy clubs (like Surrey) out of the market.
Then the lose more, stop earning money and go bust.
This is the ECB's play. To destroy everything.
That'll be the same Surrey that signed the worlds favourite drug addled pace man to help put his fingers in the holes in their sinking, sorry - sunk, ship, right?
Have fun keeping Warks seat warm in div 2 next year. I expect we'll wave on the way past next year as well as this.
As a Leicestershire fan, I don't get all this anti-Kolpak hoo-haa; I don't see why the other counties aren't happy for us to continue, since it clearly isn't helping us any - although having a team full of undesirable 30 something Saffers does at least stop other teams from poaching our entire side. Again.
Explain to me why it's fine to have Nixon in the team but not Ackerman. Neither will ever play for England, so arguably both are taking the place of someone who might, what's the difference? Ditto for players like Dominic Cork, Glenn Chapple, Mark Ealham, Jason Gallian, Darren Gough, Andy Caddick et al, all of whom are (or have been until recently) clogging up county cricket, preventing younger players from getting in the sides. Who are these younger players anyway, and why can't they force themselves into the sides? If they can't get ahead of geriatrics in the pecking list, perhaps they just aren't good enough regardless.
The two most quintessentially English games, cricket and soccer, are, ironically, the games where England's national teams have consistently underperformed internationally.
This may not be unconnected to the fact that English domestic leagues for both these sports have historically been the magnet for foreign players.
Think about the consistent successes of Germany in soccer, and Australia in cricket, and that their domestic leagues for both these sports have always had relatively few foreign players.
The tightening of the Kolpak rules may, then, be the beginning of an English cricket renaissance.
There ain't no white in the Union Jack (no more).
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