Proteas may get long-term contract

There’s no another leader who could’ve done better job than Tim Paine — Kevin Roberts, Cricket Australia chief

Dharamsala: The alarming trend of players opting for county cricket over the South Africa national team has forced the board to think about the longterm contract for its cricketers, said top CSA official Corrie van Zyl. The former South African pacer and interim coach, who is currently the Director of Cricket at Cricket South Africa (CSA), admitted that the board is serious about retaining its talented players, most of whom are taking the KOLPAK route to play English county. The KOLPAK deal named after Slovakian handball player Maros Kolpak, allows players from countries which has free-trade agreement with any European Union (EU) member nation to play professionally. Since 2004, South Africa has had the maximum number of Kolpak players but two which hurt them in recent times were pacers Kyle Abbott in 2017 and Duanne Oliver in 2019. “What are the reasons that some of the players signed Kolpak deal are best known to them. I can’t speculate as to why they would want to do that. What is important for Cricket South Africa is to ensure that we can retain our best players,” Van Zyl said during an interaction. Van Zyl said that they are working on having long-term contracts.