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| For a country like Bermuda, losing a young player of Rawlins' calibre is nothing short of a disaster © ICC |
In
recent times, we have seen a good number of players from South Africa sign on
to play as Kolpak players in English county cricket, either for financial
security or due to uncertainty over their roles in the national side as a
result of South Africa's transformation policy which requires a minimum of six
colored players in a playing XI. Among those that have signed such deals in the
recent past include Kyle Abbott, Simon Harmer, Colin Ingram, Rilee Rossouw,
Dane Vilas, David Wiese, Stiaan van Zyl and Hardus Viljoen. This move has
effectively ended their international careers for South Africa, or risked a
lengthy delay between their previous international appearance and their next if
they were to have a change of heart in the future.
However, despite their losses, South
Africa remain a very powerful unit in all formats of the international game as
a result of having many talented players to pick from among those that have
chosen to stay behind and represent their country. Unfortunately, the same
cannot be said for associate nations such as Bermuda or Namibia, who only have
a handful of talented players to pick from, which makes losing such players to
another country nothing short of a disaster.
Among the many problems associate
players face is the lack of financial security with cricket as a career in a
country that does not have the luxury of Test status or the considerably higher
amount of funding from the ICC that comes with it. With the ICC contracting the
World Cup to only 10 teams for the 2019 event, most associate nations will miss
out on the opportunity to play at cricket's biggest event. Not only that, but
they will also miss out on the exposure to millions of viewers as a result of
the extra coverage given to ICC tournaments featuring Test nations, which is
nothing but a distant fantasy for most tournaments in which they otherwise
play. There seems to be little to gain for associate players by plying their
trade in their respective countries for little or no reward, when they can move
to greener pastures and further their cricketing talents.
And
so, we are now seeing a good number of talented players from associate nations
turn their backs on the nations which helped develop them as cricketers in the
first place, in order to further their playing ambitions
elsewhere.
The
talented left-handed batting all-rounder became only the sixth player in
history to score an ODI century on debut when he recorded an unbeaten 124 for Hong Kong against UAE in November
2015. A few months later he was signed by Auckland and made his mark with a
scintillating 157 off only 111 balls against a Central
Districts attack featuring New Zealand internationals Doug Bracewell, Jesse
Ryder and Ben Wheeler. He later represented Hong Kong in the 2016 World T20 in
India, but hasn't appeared for them since. Already qualified to represent New
Zealand via residency and a New Zealander father, it seems only a matter of
time before he is selected to wear the Black Caps uniform. Chapman has been
playing for Hong Kong since making his debut for the senior team as a 16-year
old in 2011 and has been among the brightest prospects to emerge from the Chinese
community in Hong Kong.
Ruvindu Gunasekera (Canada)
Ruvindu Gunasekera (Canada)
A
dashing left-handed opening batsman who has played for Canada since making his
debut aged only 17 against Bermuda in 2008. Gunasekera was, along with other
young players such as Nitish Kumar and Hiral Patel, thrown into the deep end
during the 2011 World Cup where Canada recorded a memorable victory over former
associate giants Kenya and came close to upsetting Pakistan. He looked out of
his depth scoring only 53 runs from 5 innings at an average of 10.60, but the
experience of having played in a World Cup nonetheless played a part in his
development as a player in the years after. He went on to become arguably
Canada's most reliable batsman as they plunged into the depths of mediocrity
and subsequently lost their ODI status after a failure to qualify for the 2015
World Cup. But his services were lost to Canada just as he seemed to be hitting
his peak as a batsman, when he decided to move back to his native Sri Lanka to
pursue a professional career there.
The
formerly scrawny Bermudian left-arm spin prodigy took the world by storm in
2017 when he made his debut for the England U19s as a tall and muscular
all-rounder capable of hitting the cricket ball as far as any on the youth
cricket scene. In his first match for his adopted country, he scored an
unbeaten 107 off only 88 balls and took 2 for 46
against the India U19s. That he represented Bermuda as recently as November
2016 during the ICC World Cricket League Division 4 seemed but a distant
memory. He has already been handed a contract with Sussex for the 2017 season
and has quite clearly signaled his intentions to play at the highest level for
England. For a country like Bermuda where selectors routinely call back
forty-somethings from their glory days of qualifying for the 2007 World Cup,
losing a young player of his calibre is nothing short of a disaster.
The
Namibian fast-bowling all-rounder moved to New Zealand to further his
cricketing ambitions in 2015, appearing for Otago in four first-class matches.
He was given a full contract for
the 2016/17 season after having qualified as a New Zealand player. It was a big
loss to Namibia, whom Viljoen had been representing since 2010, after having
already lost the superb talent of Raymond van Schoor under tragic circumstances
in 2015. But seeing as Namibia haven't appeared at a single ICC event since the
2003 World Cup, and have quite regularly squandered some of their best chances
of doing so over the years, one can sympathize with Viljoen's desire
to search for better opportunities elsewhere.
Though
he hasn't yet turned his back on the USA and remains their captain, Steven
Taylor deserves a mention due to his recent selection for Jamaica in the Nagico
Super50, the regional limited overs tournament in the West Indies. His
hard-hitting exploits at the top of the order for the United States have
already seen him hold a CPL contract for the past couple of seasons, which in
turn caused him to miss the 2015 World T20 Qualifiers where America only
narrowly missed out on qualification for the 2016 World T20. He has previously
stated his desire to play for the West Indies some day and a successful stint
at Jamaica might well put him on course. One can't blame him for wanting to
represent the land of his forebears, but it would prove a big loss for the
United States who have generally struggled to produce home-grown players of
quality such as the Florida-born Taylor since the early 20th century, when the legendary
Philadelphian Bart King would routinely topple world class lineups that
toured the country.
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