‘I can fit you in next week...’ – The changing nature of county cricket and overseas loyalty

Giles White, Hampshire’s director of cricket, is sitting in the Robin Smith Suite at the Rose Bowl, pondering the changing nature of overseas players. As we talk, his eyes scan walls displaying pictures of the club’s greats. He spots Gordon Greenidge and Malcolm Marshall. “Imagine having Macca on a three-year contract today,” he says. “That would make your troubles go away. But it won’t happen...”

The era when the best overseas players arrived in April, left in September and returned almost automatically the following spring belongs in the past, with the milkman and the paperboy. Few nowadays are synonymous with a single county. Would supporters rechristen their side in honour of one player, as Gloucestershire – or “Proctershire” – did in the 1970s? In all cricket for his adopted club, Mike Procter scored 20,072 runs and took 1,113 wickets – one more than Courtney Walsh, who returned to Bristol no matter his West Indies exertions. Two of Walsh’s Test colleagues, meanwhile, Viv Richards and Joel Garner, were critical to Somerset’s rise as a one-day force, just as Farokh Engineer and Clive Lloyd had been at Lancashire. Last summer, as if in homage to a bygone age, a stand at Old Trafford was named after them.

There were others. Unlike Procter, Clive Rice had not played Test cricket before South Africa’s apartheid ban. A single-minded leader, he viewed the county circuit as his biggest stage, relishing his battles against the great international all-rounders of the day. He is arguably the most important player in Nottinghamshire’s history, and none of his team-mates was more inspired than Richard Hadlee, who mapped out a game-by-game path to the 1,000-run and 100-wicket double in 1984. To a generation of supporters, Hadlee and Rice were the new Larwood and Voce, heroes even if they weren’t locals.

Times have changed. Franchise tournaments, international schedules, training camps, A-tours and hands-on management by governing bodies have broken England’s summer monopoly. And yet the demand for overseas players is stronger than ever. Last season, 74 featured in the Championship alone; throw in the Blast and Metro Bank One-Day Cup, and the figure rose to 94. Warwickshire topped the list, with ten; Hampshire had nine.

Yorkshire had the most startling turnover, using seven in the Championship, but none for more than three games. There were reasons: injury (Ben Sears), underperformance (Jordan Buckingham), visa issues (Abdullah Shafique), international recall (Imam-ul-Haq). But this is the county where, despite rare exceptions, Yorkshire birth was a prerequisite until Sachin Tendulkar joined in 1992, posing with a flat cap and a pint of Tetley’s. Stories of husbands forbidding wives in the late stages of pregnancy from crossing the borders were not always apocryphal. As arrival followed arrival in 2025, the rattling of skeletons in Broad Acre graveyards must have registered on the Richter scale.

Nearly two-thirds of the signings across the country played four Championship games or fewer. Short-term placements can be player-led: when the elite, such as Kane Williamson, who made two Championship and 14 Blast appearances for Middlesex, are available, it is not usually for long. But the figures also reflect how counties mix and match: seamers in April and May, white-ball specialists for the Blast, spinners in September. Then there are players below international level, overlooked by franchises and available for most of the summer, such as Derbyshire’s Tasmanian opener Caleb Jewell.

Champions Nottinghamshire changed with conditions. Fergus O’Neill, from Australia, was the pick of the first-month pace bowlers, with 21 wickets at under 18, before his 30-day work permit expired. But his impact wasn’t limited to the field of play: during the title celebrations, head coach Peter Moores cut a conspicuous figure in a tan cord jacket, which O’Neill had bought in a charity shop. It became the prize for the best moment of each match.

Not everything went to plan. Nottinghamshire had signed Corbin Bosch for the four Kookaburra matches in June and July, despite a potential clash with South Africa’s tour of Zimbabwe. His agent assured the club he wouldn’t be picked. “And then, of course, he went and got picked,” says director of cricket Mick Newell. The ECB’s decision to end the Kookaburra experiment means one factor fewer to consider.

Hardly anyone sticks to the old ways, though Leicestershire secured promotion making regular use of Logan van Beek (13 Championship games) and Peter Handscomb (11). “They were strong team players, crucial to our strategy,” says director of cricket Claude Henderson. “Stability with your overseas spots really helps.”

One impact on short-term signings is the cost. Flights and accommodation add to the expense, but salaries vary hugely. Phil Weston, the former county batsman who is now head of cricket management at the TGI Sport agency, says experienced players can pocket £10,000 for a Championship game, down to £1,000 for novices. Newell was struck that India’s Ishan Kishan did not once talk money before signing for Nottinghamshire: “He came for two games, scored runs in both, and raised the profile of the club.”

Short-term signings, then, can work: by definition, they may find conditions that suit them. In 2024, Shakib Al Hasan made the 10,000-mile round trip from Bangladesh to play for Surrey, who were expecting a turning pitch at Taunton. He took nine wickets with his slow left-armers – even if Somerset won and Shakib was reported for his action. Twelve months later, Surrey drafted in Indian leg-spinner Rahul Chahar for their final game. A second-innings 8-51 bowled them to victory over Hampshire and, though the title eluded them, Chahar – like Shakib – had fulfilled his brief.

Weston thinks modern cricketers are tuned for immediate impact: “They are used to flying in to a new tournament, getting over jet lag, fitting in with different characters straight away. That is their career. It is part of their skill set to buy into an environment they might not have encountered before, and fire from day one.” Daryl Mitchell, chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, believes the number of teams and tournaments has eased assimilation. “Everybody seems to have played with everybody at some point,” he says. “It is rare nowadays to go into a dressing-room and not know anyone.”

Hampshire’s experience in 2025 shows the thought that goes into signings, as well as the difficulties that can arise. Having decided to give more opportunity to their young bowlers, and with James Vince quitting red-ball cricket, they sought a seam-bowling all-rounder to go with the tried and trusted Kyle Abbott. They found Michael Neser, only for Cricket Australia to pull him out when he injured a hamstring. Jack Edwards, a team-mate of Vince at Sydney Sixers, signed as a replacement, then injured his knee. With time running out, White admits “we had to scrap a bit” to replace the replacement. They found Brett Hampton of New Zealand, but his three games brought five expensive wickets. Next came Tilak Varma, an example of how networks can operate: he was initially brought to Hampshire’s attention by Mahela Jayawardene, who had coached Southampton-based Southern Brave, and was now with Varma at Mumbai Indians. “He proved excellent, a very fine player and an impressive young man,” says White. In four games, he scored two hundreds and averaged nearly 60.

Plans for the Blast proved equally fragile. When Hampshire signed the promising pair of Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Dewald Brevis in early spring, they knew it might clash with a South Africa A-tour, but considered it worth the risk. “Unfortunately for us, they did too well after we signed them, and got picked for the full South Africa Test squad,” says White. “That left us slightly in the lurch.” Replacing the inexperienced South Africans were a couple of battle-hardened Australians: Chris Lynn and Hilton Cartwright.

White was able to solve another problem. With Liam Dawson recalled by England, Hampshire needed a spinner. They recruited South African slow left-armer Bjorn Fortuin, thinking beyond three Blast matches in June. After Essex parachuted in Dwayne Bravo for T20 finals day in 2010, the ECB amended the regulations, so that overseas players had to appear in an earlier stage of the competition to be eligible. By signing Fortuin, Hampshire ensured they could use him again if Dawson retained his England place and they reached finals day. It proved prescient. Being around in September, Fortuin also filled in for a Championship game, before India’s Washington Sundar arrived for the last two rounds. Then there was was Scotland’s Brandon McMullen, who played five Metro Bank games, and was due to become England-qualified in 2026.

Amid the change, Abbott was the only overseas player in the country to feature in all 14 Championship matches. Others might have joined him, but for a seasonal clash: when Australia’s 2025/26 domestic season began on September 16, the Championship still had two rounds to go. “Signing overseas players is like a giant puzzle,” says White. “Who can play when? When do competitions overlap with the rest of the world? It’s an interesting part of the job, but it can be exhausting. The best-laid plans can be derailed through no fault of your own.”

Lateral thinking can come in handy. Dan Lategan is a 19-year-old batsman from Cape Town who is qualifying for Worcestershire by residence and, in April, was working in the New Road bar. When he made his first-class debut in September, he faced the added pressure of being an overseas player. “You do have to be switched on and resourceful,” says head coach Alan Richardson. There were inevitable comparisons with one of the county’s greats, Graeme Hick, who also played as an overseas while qualifying for England. “We don’t talk about Dan in the same terms,” Richardson says, “but it has been done here before, and very successfully.”

The cycle of overseas players is only one reason county aficionados struggle to keep up, even with their own team. Domestic movement is easier than ever, and the loan market has added to the disorientation. Last season, Jake Ball played one Championship game for Durham and two for Kent, before appearing for his own team, Somerset. Ben Green won the Blast with Somerset, and helped Leicestershire win Division Two. Calvin Harrison, a loanee from Nottinghamshire, played for Northamptonshire in six early Championship games, then represented Nottinghamshire in the Blast, when opponents included… Northamptonshire. Two days later, he returned to Wantage Road for two Championship games, before playing five in the Blast (and one in the Championship) for Nottinghamshire. He rounded off the season with two more four-day matches for Northamptonshire, whom he joined permanently at the end of the season. Confused? Many are.

Overseas players are expected to add value, not just fill a hole. Yet how deeply can they care for one of many clubs in a large portfolio? The experience of members is instructive. David Griffin has watched every Derbyshire match since June 28, 2009, when a T20 against Yorkshire at Headingley clashed with Bruce Springsteen at Hyde Park. “You can still have players who develop an affinity,” he says. “Shan Masood played for us in 2022. When I see him, he still refers to Derbyshire as ‘we’, even though he has been with Yorkshire and Leicestershire. He wasn’t part of the furniture here, like John Wright or Mikey Holding, but the experience seems to have meant something to him.”

In fact, none of the interviewees for this piece questioned commitment. “Players can get a bad rap when people look at their profiles on Cricinfo and see they’ve played for lots of clubs,” says Glamorgan’s director of cricket Mark Wallace. “I think they do want to be loyal, settle in and have a place that feels like home, but the international system just doesn’t allow it.” Newell agrees: “It is hard to come in for a game or two, and it doesn’t always work out, but not through lack of effort.” And, for all the rival opportunities, White believes the English game retains an allure: “Over a four-day game, you really do spend time together, and you can bond quickly. In franchise cricket, some players come in and take the money. County cricket has a soul. It’s not just ‘grab the money and go’. I think that’s why overseas players like it.”

Back to Procter. Nostalgia glows in his 1981 autobiography, in which he wrote of improved contracts, with club cars and better catering. When he mentions getting “all sorts of hot dinners and hardly ever a salad”, you can almost smell the gravy. Back then, criticism of overseas cricketers focused on their blocking potential England players; Procter said this was because many imports were high-class, and gave it their all. But he did fault those who left as soon as their benefit year was over. Disloyalty, to Procter, was quitting after ten years.

He would have been pleased to see that longevity is still, just about, a thing. Hampshire named a stand after Shane Warne, who had played for them in five seasons, while Marnus Labuschagne has developed a rapport with Glamorgan, even though his stays across six of the past seven seasons have been short. “He can earn more money elsewhere,” says Wallace. “But he sees how it works both ways: we gave him opportunities early on, and he wants to play for us.”

Before the 2026 season, Abbott and Simon Harmer at Essex, who moved from Kolpak status to the overseas category after Brexit, had taken a combined 991 first-class wickets for their adopted clubs. Colin Ingram arrived at Glamorgan in 2015, since when he has played at least some cricket in every season bar 2020. He averages 50 for the club in the Championship, and 65 in one-dayers.

“If you asked Colin for his main team, he’d probably tell you Glamorgan,” says Wallace. “He may prove to be one of the last of that old-fashioned, long-serving type of overseas. He has located to Cardiff with his family, and has a couple of kids who are even developing Welsh accents. You can’t get much more loyal than that.”

Richard Hobson is a freelance cricket writer. He covered the game for more than 20 years at The Times, and now gives guided tours of Oxford.

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