No-deal Brexit could spell the SA’s Kolpak cricketers

A no-deal Brexit could mean “Kolpak” cricketers, a group loaded with high profile South African cricketers, are gone from the English county game by 2021, according to updated guidance from the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The Kolpak ruling means that citizens of countries that have signed European Union Association Agreements, who are lawfully working within an EU country, have the same free movement rights as EU citizens.

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South Africa’s Kolpak brigade

Simon Hamer – Essex

Stiaan van Zyl – Sussex

David Wiese – Sussex

Rilee Rossouw – Hampshire

Kyle Abbott – Hampshire

Marchant de Lange – Glamorgan

Heino Kuhn – Kent

Morne Morkel – Surrey

Wayne Parnell – Worcestershire

Richard Levi – Northamptonshire

Duanne Olivier – Yorkshire

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Kolpak signings as well as cricketers with EU passports are currently eligible to play in England without counting as an “overseas” player, employment rulings that would both be directly affected by Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.

The ECB has issued an email to the 18 first-class counties noting a series of potential implications.

One such outcome involves the United Kingdom departing from the EU on October 31 without an agreement, which has frequently been floated by incoming prime minister Boris Johnson.

In that case new Kolpak registrations would be impossible and existing deals would likely cease at the end of the 2020 season.

There are dozens of Kolpaks signed to counties, with the most high-profile including former South Africa internationals Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Duanne Olivier, Simon Harmer and Kyle Abbott.

Some would be easily earn overseas deals in the event of their current status being revoked but many more would expect to leave the county circuit.

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