South Africa’s impending freelancer problem

It is the year 2020. Kagiso Rabada has played for Sydney Sixers, Delhi Daredevils and Jamaica Tallawahs and is deciding between a return to Kent or making himself available for South Africa for a Test match. Rabada has not played for his country since 2018, in the World T20. He sat out 2019 because he chose the Pakistan Super League instead.

You’ve heard these kinds of scenarios before, and perhaps you’ve even started to believe they will come to exist, especially if you are a follower of South African cricket.

Why them in particular?

With some of the most celebrated names in the game – think AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn – and a team that has until recently occupied top spot in Test cricket and hovered around there in ODIs, their players are in demand in T20 leagues and at home, and they increasingly have reasons to favour the former.

While T20 leagues offer US dollar income and freedom from politics, playing for South Africa means being paid in declining rands, and a responsibility to nation-building, which involves buying into CSA’s aggressive transformation policy. The word from some former players is that the more valuable currency and the gigs with less baggage are likely to win out, despite the fierce loyalties bred through the South African school system that make players second-guess themselves.

One former player told ESPNcricinfo that money will be “80%” to blame for the exodus. International player body FICA’s 2016 report painted a financial picture that showed the disparity that exists between centrally contracted national players and T20 mercenaries everywhere except in England and Australia (and presumably India, but their players do not have a union and so are not included in FICA reviews). A player who is part of three domestic T20 leagues a year takes home an average of $510,000. Cricket South Africa ($346,494), Sri Lanka Cricket ($234,500), New Zealand Cricket ($231,000), the West Indies Cricket Board ($225,625) and the Bangladesh Cricket Board ($67,935) all pay their players much less.

For South Africans, whose currency has devalued 30% against the US dollar in the last 12 months, the monetary lure of earning foreign currency is too good to turn down. In a column for SA Cricket magazine in February, former Test opener Alviro Petersen he predicted that South Africa could lose their best players in 18-24 months.

At the time Petersen used himself as an example. He was denied a no-objection certificate to play in the Masters Champions League because his South African franchise, Lions, wanted him to honour his contract with them. Petersen underlined what that cost him. “I could have earned what the Lions pay me in a year for just two and a half weeks at the MCL,” he wrote. “We might see some players decide to play Big Bash rather than play a Test series in December. This is reality! Watch this space…”

As it turns out, several sources have confirmed two of South Africa’s top bowlers are considering exactly that. The Big Bash coincides with …

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