Time for a reality check

There's been a fair few things written on message boards around the country since the signing of Nantie Hayward (pictured)and I think that the time has come to clarify things, in fairness to the bloke and to John Morris.

Prior to the signing being announced, such names as Andy Bichel, Michael Kasprowicz and Glenn McGrath were being bandied around, perhaps in the light of a comment on the cricket commentary about the new man "coming from Australia". I even heard of someone suggesting that we sign Dale Steyn. Hmmmm....

To clarify things, only cricketers from countries signed up to the ACP-EU Trade Agreement can play as a Kolpak. The agreement is more commonly known as the Cotonou Agreement and includes various African, Caribbean and Pacific states or countries, namely:

Angola - Antigua and Barbuda - Belize - Cape Verde - Comoros - Bahamas - Barbados - Benin - Botswana - Burkina Faso - Burundi - Cameroon - Central African Republic - Chad - Congo (Brazzaville) - Congo (Kinshasa) - Cook Islands - Cote d'Ivoire - Cuba - Djibouti - Dominica - Dominican Republic - Eritrea - Ethiopia - Fiji - Gabon - Gambia - Ghana - Grenada - Republic of Guinea - Guinea-Bissau - Equatorial Guinea - Guyana - Haiti - Jamaica - Kenya - Kiribati - Lesotho - Liberia - Madagascar - Malawi - Mali - Marshall Islands - Mauritania - Mauritius - Micronesia - Mozambique - Namibia - Nauru - Niger - Nigeria - Niue - Palau - Papua New Guinea - Rwanda - St. Kitts and Nevis - St. Lucia - St. Vincent and the Grenadines - Solomon Islands - Samoa - Sao Tome and Principe - Senegal - Seychelles - Sierra Leone - Somalia - South Africa - Sudan - Suriname - Swaziland - Tanzania - Timor Leste - Togo - Tonga - Trinidad and Tobago - Tuvalu - Uganda - Vanuatu - Zambia - Zimbabwe


I'll be honest and admit that I've not heard of some of these places. Comoros anyone? It is safe to say that most of them are not famous for their cricketing exploits, which basically leaves three areas from which counties can realistically recruit Kolpaks - and Australia is not one of them!

Most of the Caribbean is OK, South Africa certainly is and so is Zimbabwe (not that they have any decent players left). The other condition is that players must not have played Test cricket at any point in the previous 12 months to qualify.

Now, given the paucity of West Indian bowling resources, that pretty much leaves South Africa as the ONLY real source of Kolpak players. Bearing that in mind, can anyone say that Morris could have signed anyone BETTER than Nantie Hayward?

I had someone e mail me to say that no one could replace the "legend" that was Langeveldt. Whoah there hoss! Langeveldt is/was a fine player (and with tightening of legislation imminent, who knows if we'll see him at Derby again?) But legend? He had one season, albeit a very good one. I'll reserve "legend" for a Les Jackson, Cliff Gladwin, Bill Copson, Michael Holding, Mike Hendrick - guys who have delivered over a period of time.

Maybe Hayward isn't as good as Langeveldt. Then again, maybe he is. I think we should await his arrival, see how he bowls and then make an informed decision. If he is fully fit and able to bowl good spells and some quick balls (and he's two years younger than Langeveldt, so...) he could be a potent weapon in the second half of the summer. He'll hurry up some opening batsmen, that is for sure. If there's a track with a little bounce and something for the bowlers, I'd suggest that Hayward is a fair swap for Charl. His strike rate in first class matches is better than Langeveldt, while that in list A matches is slightly less. Interestingly he has 54 Test wickets at 29, Charl has 16 wickets at 37. At the end of the day, the king is "dead" so long live the king. Statistics can prove anything, but we'll see what the guy is made of when he's tearing in at Derby and Chesterfield.

In the light of the above, if anyone can tell me a better option than the one we have got, you can buy me a dress and call me Lolita.

Because I can't think of one.