Marchant de Lange to join Glamorgan; continuing South African exodus

International cricketers joining English counties from South Africa continues as Glamorgan will be signing 26-year-old pacer Marchant de Lange for a long-term deal, despite him not qualifying under the controversial Kolpak ruling. Recently, seven South African internationals joined counties as Kolpaks this close season, but de Lange is not eligible to play as one since he has not played the required number of international matches in the last 2 years.

Kolpak registrations need the player to have played one Test match or 15 limited-overs internationals in the 24 months before signing. De Lange has played just one ODI and one T20I for the Proteas. But the right-arm pacer will be registered as a local player since his wife has a British passport.

The consequences of this are more severe than for a Kolpak registration. For a Kolpak, he would be ending his international career to make the move, but he would only be eligible to play as a local player in any country’s domestic competitions. So if he wants to continue playing South African domestic cricket, it will have to be as an overseas player.

De Lange, a tall pacer with genuine pace behind him, took 7 for 81 in his first Test innings against Sri Lanka in 2011, but he has played only one more match since. He has also played four ODIs and six T20Is. This summer he took 35 wickets at 28 in nine first-class matches, as well as 19 wickets in 11 white-ball games. He has very few international games to his name.

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Cricket South Africa told the Guardian that they were “powerless” to stop players leaving for county deals that make them unavailable for international cricket, but they are assessing how to deal with “returning Kolpaks”. One of the options is to limit the number of players in each team in their own domestic competitions.