West Indies captain Jason Holder has called for a “significant minimum salary” to be introduced in international cricket following Duanne Olivier’s decision to sign a Kolpak deal.
Still 26 years old and having only recently firmed up his position in South Africa’s Test team, Olivier was unveiled as a Yorkshire county player earlier this week, signing a three-year Kolpak deal.
As a Kolpak player, Olivier will not be able to represent South Africa during his three-year stint with Yorkshire and the county will not have to consider him an overseas player.
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Duanne Olivier is the latest high profile South Africa cricketer who has opted to put his international career on hold.Source: Getty Images
The right-arm seamer is the fourth high profile player South Africa has lost to county cricket in the past two years, with Morne Morkel joining Surrey after an 86-Test career in 2018, and Kyle Abbott and Rilee Rossouw joining Hampshire a year earlier.
It’s an exodus indicative of the financial security offered by county cricket in comparison to the pinnacle of South African cricket. Twenty20 franchise cricket has had a similar impact on international cricket outside of the big three of India, Australia and England.
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With this in mind, Holder has had discussions with the Federation of International Cricketers Association (FICA) to level the playing field in terms of player salaries on the international stage.
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“It’s really sad to see another quality player lost to Kolpak cricket,” Holder said. “Until something is properly done to keep players a little bit more grounded, financially, I don’t know how much longer you can continue putting up the front (that international cricket is the pinnacle).
“People still want to see international cricket being at the forefront. I just think, going forward, we need to find a way to keep players playing for their country so we can have an attractive product.
“Probably the ICC and FICA needs to get together and institute a substantial minimum salary so that players will feel comfortable coming home to represent their country.
“There’s so much prestige behind it. I can only hope we can find some common ground where players are properly compensated and encouraged to play Test cricket as opposed to running off to domestic leagues.”
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