County cricket loses allure for SA players

Greg Hayes, CSA's cricket development consultant, tells of arriving in Brighton in 1977 hoping to land a county contract with Sussex.

This was his big break. He was a country boy from Queenstown, the trip had been arranged by Sandy Greig, Tony's father, and when he presented himself in the Sussex secretary's office in his freshly bought blazer, his wide provincial eyes were met with incomprehension.

The Sussex secretary had heard of him but there was no contract on offer - he was terribly sorry.

Confused and perturbed, Hayes went to watch the cricket, where Sussex were playing Hampshire. Seeing Gordon Greenidge playing for the visitors and Imran Khan for Sussex, improved Hayes's mood just a bit.

At the end of the day, and with nothing better to do, he and a New Zealander went to the local watering hole, The Cricketer, for a few beers.

"A guy called Dick Packham knocked my beer out of my hand," remembers Hayes. "He offered to buy me another one by way of an apology and we got talking. He invited me and the New Zealander to play at his club, the Brighton and Hove Cricket Club."

Hayes played at Brighton and Hove for two years, occasionally turning out for the Sussex second X1 before moving north to the Lancashire and Bolton Leagues, where he played for six seasons at Ramsbottam, Burnley and Keasley.

Life at Sussex was tough. Khan always played as one of two overseas professionals in the first X1, with Kepler Wessels and Javed Miandad taking alternating turns as the batting pro of choice.

Still, life was one big, hearty adventure. Not bad for a boy whose mother was so worried about her son that she attached his travellers' cheques to the inside of his blazer pocket with a safety pin before he left.

For a small provincial town, Queenstown produced a disproportionate number of county and England cricketers. Tony Greig started off at Sussex before going on to captain England; Ian, Tony's brother, played for Sussex and Surrey before a handful of appearances for England.

The Hayes and Greig experience is part of an all-too-rarefied past. Cricketers either discover their Englishness early nowadays, like Jade Dernbach, or become honorary Englishmen by spending so many of their summers there, like Martin van Jaarsveld and Alfie Thomas.

In fact, the entire landscape of South Africans playing in England has changed; the turbulent times of the Kolpak period having softened into something more manageable.

"Cricket and rugby authorities in England campaigned for the government to tighten up on visa requirements," said Tony Irish, CEO of the local players' association. "You only get a work visa to play professionally in counties now if you've played international cricket for SA."

Irish goes on to say that he believes the current situation is healthier than it once was because the slow drip of Kolpak players six and seven years ago has reduced to a trickle.

Indeed, the annual move north looks to be limited this season. Vernon Philander is already in Somerset, Ashwell Prince heads to Lancashire today, while Alviro Peterson will be flying to Wales to captain Glamorgan. The footprint is substantially reduced.