The possible selection of players without domestic contracts for the Proteas could lead to a possible misbalance within Cricket South Africa’s development structures of young players in the country.

That is the question mark raised by the CEO of the South African Cricketers’ Association, Andrew Breetzke.

In an interview with Afrikaans publication Netwerk24, Breetzke emphasised the importance of integral discussions surrounding the effect of Kolpak players, who will become eligible to play for South Africa again next year, and the selection of players like AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir and Chris Morris, who aren’t on domestic, franchise or national contracts in South Africa.

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‘The question is: How do you effectively maintain your domestic structure but still select the strongest national team even with players, who aren’t locally contracted? I don’t necessarily have the answer to that,’ said Breetzke.

It is therefore important for Breetzke that the right balance is struck, otherwise younger players could see De Villiers and co’s positions as motivation to only play in T20 competitions across the world, because they will be considered for the Proteas.

‘You don’t want to make it attractive to your best players to become sort of freelancers. That will lead to those players saying they don’t want to play domestic cricket.

‘There are a lot of questions. Do you put restrictions in place on how many of those players can play? Do you put a limit on the number of international matches as a condition to players, who are overseas, to be selected?’

Breetzke used the example of the West Indies, who are arguably the best T20 team in the world because they’ve won two World Cups in the format by using the best players but who don’t play domestic cricket in the country.

‘CSA will have to make a policy decision around that and it is a decision that should be made at the highest level.’

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