The Hindu : Sport : The Peter Roebuck Column

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Saturday, Jun 11, 2005

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The Peter Roebuck Column

Counties ignoring responsibilities

The eagerness with which counties have searched for talented foreigners begs the question about their role

PETER ROEBUCK

Anyone fancy a game of cricket?! English counties have opened their arms to any foreigner with runs or wickets in his curriculum vitae. Any Irfan, Dinesh or Sourav can get a game. Generous terms can be expected because the clubs are rolling in money thanks to fat contracts paid by television companies eager to persuade more punters to buy their dishes.

Moreover players can come and go as they please. Anyone with other commitments can pop over for a few games and then rejoin their national sides. Last year Ricky Ponting turned out a few times for Somerset. This year Graeme Smith has joined the cider county and is currently playing his first home match in the old Roman city of Bath, alongside Sanath Jayasuriya but not Nixon Mclean who is wallowing in the second XI.

Nor need the foreigners have established themselves in Test cricket to be able to secure contracts with English counties. Indeed counties regard players on the fringes of the international game as better value for money as there is no need to be constantly ferrying them to and from Heathrow Airport. A phalanx of South African occasionals are currently representing counties, including three at Leicestershire, Claude Henderson, Charl Willougby and Zander De Bruyn.

Cheaper option

Nor are foreign born cricketers any longer forced to fight for one of the two places previously reserved for overseas contributors. Counties have long been allowed to field two foreigners in every match — an allocation they hurry to fill because it is much easier to sign an accomplished player than to produce one. Often it is also cheaper. Many of the best overseas players have illuminated the scene. Not that locals lack talent. Smith and Jayasuriya were outbatted in Somerset's most recent innings by Matthew Wood, a homespun lad whose dad runs Exmouth cricket club in Devon.

Unfortunately Lord's cannot any longer restrict counties to a pair of overseas guests. Not long ago a European court decided not only that that workers from member countries must be treated alike but also gave the same protection to anyone from an affiliated nation — and there are an awful lot of them. Once the implications of this ruling was grasped the floodgates opened.

Ever since, counties have scoured the cricketing world for gifted players able to fulfil the meagre legal requirements set out in the "Kolpak" case, named after the Croatian handball player at the centre of the original dispute. Lord's has not been to blame because it cannot control its own legislators let alone those loose in European courtrooms.

Spurious comparison

However the eagerness with which counties have searched for talented foreigners begs the question about their role in the English game. Apologists argue that counties are in the same position as Premier division football clubs like Arsenal and Manchester United and point towards the number of foreigners appearing in their colours. But the comparison is spurious. Arsenal and company pay their own way, attract large crowds, have massive franchises, are popular all over the world and regularly field great players. Nor are they merely competing locally; they also trying to win continental and sometimes international tournaments.

Counties play in front of a few hundred spectators, cannot win anything except domestic trophies and are heavily subsidised by the game's governing body. In short they are not part of the entertainment industry. They are part of the cricketing production line and ought to act accordingly.

England has always relied on its counties to produce players, especially now that school cricket and consequently university cricket have fallen back. By investing their money and places on players unable to represent the country, counties are ignoring their responsibilities to the national side. It's not good enough. It must stop. Where there is a will, there is generally a way.

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