Handball star who batted for cricketers

29 June 2016 - 09:25 By Archie Henderson

Thirteen years ago a Slovakian handball player did a few South Africans a favour. It's unlikely they knew of Maros Kolpak before 2003 and it's uncertain if any have met him since, but the favour is about to run out. Last week, 17410742 Britons voted to annul Kolpak's favour.It wasn't top of their minds when they went to the polls on Thursday, but their decision to end membership of the EU has meant that a South African fast bowler in their local county cricket team or a Blue Bulls loose forward in their club rugby XV might soon be turned away at Heathrow.The sporting implications of Brexit are small potatoes compared with losing the European potato market. But when your county team could have done with a bit of pace in the opening overs of a cricket match, or solid defence during the dying minutes of a rugby game, it is a big deal.Britain's vote means the end of a rule that made it possible for South African cricketers and rugby players (and a few others from African, Caribbean and Pacific nations) to play for pounds.Kolpak, now 45, was a goalkeeper in Slovakia's handball team for 71 internationals. He didn't have cricket or rugby in mind when he approached the European Court of Justice to challenge a foreign-player restriction that had been imposed on a German club he wanted to join.The court ruled that citizens of countries that were aligned to EU association agreements (such as South Africa and Slovakia) had the same right to freedom of work and movement within the EU as EU citizens and that any restrictions on their rights to work were illegal. Slovakia became a member of the EU only a year later.Kolpak's victory had a wide-ranging effect, especially for English county cricket and European rugby. It opened the way for South Africans (and a few other nationalities) to become part of cricket and rugby teams without taking up any limited foreign-player concession. They were known as Kolpak players.The court ruling also benefited Kolpak and his German club, Kronau Ostringen. The club was promoted to Germany's first division in 2003, with the goalkeeper playing no small part. It reached the first division finals in 2006 and 2007 and in 2006 Kolpak was voted the best goalkeeper in the league.Of the eight Kolpak players in the English county championship, four are South Africans. Two of them, Johan Myburgh at Somerset and Alviro Petersen with Lancashire, are nearing the end of their careers at 35, but Richard Levi at Northamptonshire is in the middle of his at 28, and probably Colin Ingram, 30, at Glamorgan too.There is, however, an escape clause: a British passport, or even an EU one, if the Brexit government allows it. South African-born cricketers Keaton Jennings and Wayne Madsen hold British passports, Roelof van der Merwe and Ryan ten Doeschate have Dutch ones and Tim Groenewald at Somerset qualifies by virtue of an English mother.Residence qualification could save Levi, who was once the scorer of the fastest international T20 century but has since given up on the Proteas. The future for those hoping to follow him, however, looks bleak...

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