What effect is Kolpak having on English cricket

[Ian J]

Leicestershire are currently playing Essex and a look at the team that the East Midlanders have put out shows that it includes HD Ackerman, HH Dippenaar, J du Toit, CW Henderson, D du Preez and GJP Kruger who are all South African and playing under the so called Kolpak regulations.

If that wasn't bad enough Jim Allenby who is Australian is also in the side which leaves just four places for English cricketers.

One can argue a case for including top class overseas players as the locals will learn from them but the majority of the above are just journeymen

[KevD]

Kolpak for Dummies, for those unsure

Journeymen is being kind and having a scan of the other currently listed Kolpak players I can see very few who will help local youngsters develop - Pollock, Flower, Goodwin & possibly Van Jarsveld (although I believe these could have all applied for British Citizenship and Kolpak wouldnt have been needed).

Leicestershire also seem to have a number of young Englsih junior level Internationals waiting in the wings for a chance who are now in their early 20s, so clearly effecting these guys. So more concerning than Kolpak is why they wont give these guys a go!

The ECB has brought in penalties for feilding teams with Kolpak players, so they clearly feel it is a problem. Is enough money going into getting people into Cricket early on? Saw a big effort after the Ashes win but seemed to die off pretty quickly

[Ian J]

Northants current side playing Essex includes five South Africans MH Wessels, N Boje, AJ Hall, JJ van der Wath and J Louw so if they were to amalgamate with Leicestershire their next door neighbours and added in their six South Africans they could change their name to Kolpakshire and put out a team of just Saffies