Director of Cricket at the Proteas, Graeme Smith, will welcome back South Africa’s verlore Kolpak seuns with open arms if they decide to return home.
For years South Africa’s cricket has suffered because of players signing Kolpak deals for English county clubs, which means they can’t play international cricket.
But daai bus stop aan die einde van die jaar, with Brexit nullifying Kolpak deals.
And that means ex-Proteas such as Duane Olivier (27), Wayne Parnell (30), Kyle Abbott (32), Simon Harmer (31), Rilee Rossouw (30), Stiaan van Zyl (32) and Marchant de Lange (29) will all be available to the national team again.
The question is, staan die manne ‘n kans om vir die Proteas te speel?
Cricket South Africa’s Smith explains: “It’s been a complex issue for a number of years.
“But with Kolpak coming to an end, the willingness is to always have our best players back in the system.
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“The issue has been around the Kolpak and with that fading away, it’s really up to the players to make a decision on their careers.
“From our point of view, we want to encourage our best players to play here both domestically and give themselves the opportunity to be selected for the national side.
“We don’t want to ever exclude players who want to be a part of our system. We understand the landscape of the world game is different to what it was.
“Keeping an open mind is going to be key to how we keep our best players, how we keep them motivated and keep them in our game.”