Counties write to ECB to consider visa rules changes considering First Class matches for Overseas players

Indian Express

16-05-2025

With the England Home office having qualification rules for overseas non-international players to be eligible for work visa in the country relying on the players having played at least 20 domestic T20 games in Full ICC Member nations, the England domestic scene sees most of the overseas players not meeting such eligibility. Without the eligibility, overseas players are limited to a maximum of 30 days contract with an English domestic side under the Permitted Paid Engagement (PPE) visa scheme and some of the English county teams have written to ECB to reconsider the rules and to take first class experience into consideration.
The recent rule change requests have come after Australian Fergus O'Neil, who took 21 wickets at an average of 17.9 for Nottinghamshire in Division One Championships, was forced to leave England after 30 days. 'We didn't want him for T20s, we wanted him for four-day cricket. It is crazy. T20 seems a bizarre format for Fergus to have had to play when we didn't want to sign for that form of the game – we wanted to sign him for four-day cricket. If you want to make these competitions the best in the world, you've got a really good player here that could probably have played another three games – and continue to make the competition stronger. I have raised it with the ECB, when they look at the rules and regulations for next season. Could they look at a format-by-format qualification, rather than just using T20? If you want to sign a player for red-ball cricket, then they should qualify through what they've done in red-ball cricket in their own country, not T20,' Mick Newell, director of cricket at Nottinghamshire, told Telegraph Sport.
Another overseas cricketer Brendan Doggett of Australia too had to leave England after 30 days after playing for Durham. Another Australian pace bowler Harry Conway was only eligible to play for Northamptonshire for 30 days apart from another Australian Jordan Buckingham too playing for Yorkshire for only 30 days. According to Telegraph Sport, the qualification rules for overseas players were revised by Home Office post consultation with ECB and the rules were revised to oversee the eligibility of overseas players participation in The Hundred with the 20 domestic T20 games in Full Members Member nations eligibility in practice from 2020. 'It seems bizarre. We now have a qualification criteria designed around playing a minimum number of T20 games with zero recognition of those non-international players who are playing high-quality first-class cricket. There are some high-quality overseas players who have not played international cricket and who do not go off and play franchise cricket that would enhance the quality of the Championship and also help with season-long planning instead of overseas players coming back and forth. Why would you have T20 cricket as the sole qualification to be allowed to stay longer than 30 days and play in our first-class competition?,' Tim Bostock, Durham chairman, told Telegraph Cricket.
As per the newspaper, several counties are planning to write to ECB to push for the eligibility criteria to be reformed and introduction of a new qualification criteria of first-class matches to be played by overseas players or considering 'A' team internationals matches too. As per the report, such proposals can be sent to ECB by end May and ECB can discuss it through a committee followed by a discussion by the Professional Game Committee and post approval. The ECB can take the matter to the Home Office.
'I expect the ECB to lobby the government hard on changing the criteria. It's puzzling that there are multiple overseas players playing in the Premier League and Football League – many of whom have not played at the highest level yet we seem to be restricted, particularly when we only have 18 first-class teams.' added Bostock.