CAPE TOWN – Kyle Abbott and Rilee Rossouw look certain to be lost to South African cricket. Independent Media understands that Cricket South Africa have been in urgent discussions with both players’ representatives over the past 48 hours, to see if there is a way to reverse what would be a double hammer blow to the country.
Politics and sport are uncomfortable bedfellows, but South African cricket looks set to suffer the implications of Brexit, with fears that the employment door may be harder to break down in future. That has forced players in their prime – but on the fringes of their national team – to weigh up their options immediately.
The lure of the British pound, coupled with the uncertainty of their respective futures, looks like they have convinced two of South Africa’s most potent Protea talents across the pond. And there may be precious little that their current employers can do about it.
Unlike their rugby counterparts, cricket has strict rules about players plying their trade elsewhere. A Kolpak deal requires a player to retire from international cricket, and had been seen as an option at the end of players’ careers.
With their national contracts ending in April, both men were in a position to start negotiating their future, and Abbott is understood to have entered talks with Hampshire before his successful tour of Australia.
“It would be sad to see him leave,” Kagiso Rabada said on Wednesday evening of his Proteas pace chum Abbott.
The saddest part of the matter is that after an often tortured past in green and gold, Abbott was in the midst of his finest international hour. It seems the scars of that 2015 World Cup semi-final, as well as countless other occasions when Abbott was seen as the easy option to drop, have been the telling factor.
The news of his Hampshire offer broke on the second day of the ongoing Test, but Abbott is understood to have explained his situation to the team before then to put them in the picture. Cricket South Africa (CSA) have been urgently trying to find a way to reverse the situation, but it seems that his head was turned even before he left for Australia in November.
Abbott didn’t take the decision to be left out of the opening Test in Perth very well, and there were still significant calls for Morné Morkel to be recalled ahead of him before the Hobart Test. With South African cricket not always showing him the love he craved, and perhaps deserved, it seems that Abbott sought someone who would show him the money.
Abbott, 29, has a three-year deal on the table from county outfit Hampshire – worth over £500 000 (about R9 million) in total – with the option of a fourth year, and a national contract doesn’t quite match those numbers, even with match fees and bonuses.
Abbott, who was recently released by his IPL franchise, could also supplement his income with stints in the soon-to-be revamped T20 Challenge in South Africa, or even the Big Bash League in Australia.
The even more startling news is that of Rossouw, who has also been allegedly convinced to pack in an international career that looked to be just blossoming into its full potential, injuries notwithstanding.
South African cricket bosses would arguably be even more disappointed in the Knights batsman, perhaps, as they have stood by him through several injuries, and he had even retained his place ahead of veteran Hashim Amla in recent months – a sure sign of the faith they have in his undoubted abilities.
Both Abbott and Rossouw, 27, had spoken with beaming pride about representing their country only recently, though they had endured personal heartache along the way. But, it seems, every man and his priorities has a price.
The double loss blows a cavernous hole into the Proteas’ plans for the tour of New Zealand and England, as well as the Champions Trophy in late May, where both men were expected to play significant roles in a challenge for a major ICC trophy.
CSA are expected to respond to the double whammy at the conclusion of the second Test at Newlands, which is likely to be around lunch on Thursday.
