PCA to propose limit on overseas players

The Professional Cricketers' Association will today unveil a proposal to reduce the number of overseas players in English cricket, claiming that the rise is threatening the financial stability of the game and undermining the future of the England side.

The PCA proposal, which pushes for a reduction in the number of overseas players to one per county from 2005, will be delivered to county chiefs ahead of the meeting of the First-Class Forum at Lord's next week.

The move will find support in many quarters at the end of a summer during which it was almost impossible to keep track of which imported players were playing from week to week. The almost farcical situation was highlighted yesterday when Somerset announced that they had signed Ricky Ponting for the 2004 season. A closer look at the fine print revealed that Ponting would only be available for a total of ten weeks in April, July and August, and that another Australian, Jamie Cox would fill in the gaps.

The PCA is also likely to propose a voluntary agreement be put in place which would ask that the first-class counties agree to field a minimum number of English-qualified players in any side. This is aimed at limiting the number of non-English-qualified cricketers- those who bypass the restrictions thanks to their possession of an EU passport despite being to all intents and purposes an overseas player. The EU have ruled that a formal limit on them would is unlawful.

Devon Malcolm suggested a limit last month when he bowed out of the first-class game with a broadside aimed at EU-qualifed players. "Some of these guys have no intention of making themselves available to play for England and they are abusing the system'" he said. "I would like to see a gentlemen's agreement between the counties under which they would pick a minimum of nine England-qualified players for any first-class match." He might get his wish granted next week.