Dane Vilas and Cameron Delport appeal to ECB to allow them to fulfil contracts for 2021 as local players with Kolpak stars set to become ineligible after Brexit
- From next year Kolpak players will no longer be eligible as a result of Brexit
- South African pair do not meet criteria to be considered regulation cricketers
- Lancashire captain Dane Vilas and Essex’s Cameron Delport hold ancestry visas
Two South African cricketers have appealed to the ECB to allow them to fulfil their existing contracts for the 2021 season as local players.
Lancashire captain Dane Vilas and Essex Twenty20 specialist Cameron Delport hold ancestry visas – Vilas through his wife – which allow them to work in the UK beyond the end of the year when Kolpak players will no longer be eligible as a result of Brexit.
As things stand, they do not meet the criteria to be considered regulation two cricketers – effectively those considered to be ‘qualified’ rather than overseas – in the ECB’s registration status.
Dane Vilas holds an ancestry visa through his wife to continue working in the UK into 2021
However, in a challenge under UK employment law, the governing body have been asked to waive or modify the eligibility stipulation that states individuals must either be a British citizen or a European Economic Area national.
Sportsmail understands the duo are the only foreign players currently registered with first-class counties who have a legal right to continue employment here but do not meet the regulation two registration guidelines.
A clutch of others such as Leicestershire captain Colin Ackermann, Northamptonshire batsman Ricardo Vasconcelos and Leus du Plooy, of Derbyshire, are to continue their careers here as ‘locals’ as European passport holders with settled status.
He and Essex’s Cameron Delport have appealed for local player status to the ECB
Several high-profile Kolpaks, with no European or British ties, such as English domestic cricket’s 2019 player of the year Simon Harmer, Kyle Abbott and Duanne Olivier will take advantage of the ECB’s decision to allow each two overseas players in all county competitions next summer by switching status.
But Vilas and Delport – leading run scorers in Lancashire’s Division Two title and Essex’s Twenty20-winning campaign in 2019 respectively – hope to avoid making similar moves, allowing their clubs greater scope for registering other imports.
Their cases are ‘live’ with the ECB, who are expected to confirm the end of Kolpak eligibility and clarify those able to meet the ‘qualified’ criteria next month.