Need policy for players joining associate member countries

Most of Namibias players live in South Africa and play cricket there but are playing for Namibia on the basis of some old ancestral connection

What this World Cup has shown us once again is how players who find themselves unable to play for their country somehow find some ancestral connection to qualify for an associate member team and thus play in the World Cup for that country.

To the best of my knowledge if a player has played at the U-19 level for one country, then he needs to have stayed in another country for at least four years before he can qualify for that country. But if he has played a Test match for one country then he has to complete seven years residency in another country to be eligible to play for that country.

I am happy to be corrected but there doesn’t seem to be any policy in place for those who have played for an associate country to spend some residence time in a Test country to be eligible to play for another Test country and vice versa too. 

Jofra situation

We have had the situation of a player who had never played a single club game in The Netherlands playing for them in the ICC World Twenty20 Cup in June 2009 in England and a few months later wearing Australia colours in a T20 game in Australia. Most of Namibias players live in South Africa and play cricket there but are playing for Namibia on the basis of some old ancestral connection.

Many in the UAE team don’t have the UAE passport but play for UAE and this is pretty common in a lot of, if not all associate member countries. England of course famously changed the policy to three years residency instead of the ICC-mandated four years in England for U-19 players, who represented another country simply to allow Jofra Archer to play for England in the ICC World Cup in 2019, which they went on to win through the Super Over. Guess who bowled the Super Over?  Yes sir, it was Jofra Archer.

Big disadvantage

England have used and discarded players from Ireland quite regularly which hasn’t helped Irish cricket. If one of your star players goes and plays for a full member country then the Associate member country’s cricket suffers as the competitive level goes downhill. The player sometimes wastes a few years of his career waiting for the next chance and then goes back to his original country. 

So what then is the ideal residence period to be able to qualify for another country? Or should a player who has played once for one country be allowed to pull on the cap of another country?

Professional Management Group

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