15-05-2025
The Home Office's next big headache? English cricket
County cricket is being undermined by 'bizarre' work permit rules as clubs lobby the Home Office and ECB for change to the 'crazy' system.
Players who do not meet playing criteria are restricted to a maximum of 30 days in the country, under the Permitted Paid Engagement visa scheme. It means several leading performers in this year's County Championship have been forced to return home early as they do not meet qualification criteria.
The existing rules for overseas players, which were introduced in 2020, mean those without international experience are judged on their T20 pedigree. But counties argue it is wrong to judge players signed for the County Championship based on their prowess in the white-ball game, and want the rules to change for the 2026 domestic season.
'We didn't want him for T20s, we wanted him for four-day cricket'
This season, Fergus O'Neill took 21 wickets at an average of 17.9 for Nottinghamshire in Division One, the most of any player during the first five weeks of the season. Yet O'Neill was still forced to leave early. Durham's Brendan Doggett, another Australian, was in a similar situation.
'It is crazy, Mick Newell, the director of cricket at Notts, told Telegraph Sport. '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.'
Australians having to play through jet lag
To maximise the amount of games that O'Neill played, he only arrived from Australia 72 hours before Notts's first Championship match of the season. Without the 30-day limit, O'Neill would have arrived several days earlier; Australian players typically arrive around a week before their opening game, to give sufficient time to recover from jet lag.
Tim Bostock, the Durham chairman, said rules need to be reformed for the good of the county game. He believes the limit of two overseas players per team per match already ensures a high level of quality control.
'It seems bizarre,' Bostock told Telegraph Sport. '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?
'I expect the ECB to lobby 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.'
Home Office rules have Hundred in mind
The qualification rules for overseas players are determined by the Home Office, following consultation with the ECB. The last changes to the criteria were made before the 2020 season. The bulk of overseas players qualify for a work permit by dint of playing international cricket. For those without recent international experience, an alternative path is to have played at least 20 domestic T20 games in Full member nations in the preceding three years. Players who miss these criteria are limited to a maximum of 30 days contracted to a domestic team.
There is frustration among counties that the criteria priorities short-format experience and is seemingly designed with the Hundred in mind. But players with fine first-class calibre miss out. Cricketers from Australia, where the national talent pool is particularly strong, are especially penalised, as in the case of O'Neill and Doggett.
O'Neill, 24, is considered among the most exciting Australian quick bowlers of his generation. He was named Sheffield Shield player of the season for 2024-25 and has taken 133 first-class wickets at just 20 apiece. Doggett has a fine record in the Australian domestic game and has been called up in several Test squads in recent years. Bizarrely, Doggett's Test selection has hindered his ability to meet the criteria to play a full part as an overseas player in county cricket. While with Australia's squad, he missed Big Bash matches that would have helped him meet the threshold of T20 matches.
Harry Conway, another Australian pace bowler, was also only eligible to join Northamptonshire on a short-term basis this year. Jordan Buckingham also signed for Yorkshire for only four weeks.
Several counties are now planning to urge the ECB to push for the criteria to be reformed to ensure high-quality overseas players are able to play a full part in the County Championship. Ideas that counties are discussing include a new qualification criteria of first-class matches played by a player, or A team internationals being counted.
Such proposals must be put forward by the end of the month. The ECB has an annual consultation period with the professional and recreational game each year, which runs until May 31. After the consultation period ends, suggestions are discussed by the ECB committee.
Should the suggestions then be deemed worthy of exploring by the committee, they will also assess whether they fall within Home Office parameters. If the suggestions do meet these criteria, they will be discussed by the Professional Game Committee. Should this group then approve of the suggestions, they will advance to the ECB board for sign-off. At this point, finally, the suggestions would then be taken to the Home Office, who ultimately decide what the qualification criteria for overseas players are.
