10 April 2004	Saturday	19 Safar 1425

LONDON, April 9: Maros Kolpak has never scored a run nor taken a wicket. But he could yet have as a profound effect upon English cricket, whose domestic season started on Friday, as Michael Vaughan or Steve Harmison.

Kolpak, a Slovakian handball player, went to the European Court in a bid to play in Germany without being classed as a foreigner because he came from a non-European Union (EU) country. His victory means that workers from around 100 countries who have trade agreements with the EU are now protected by European employment laws.

But there are fears that England's counties, looking for short-term success, will exploit the Kolpak ruling to bring in foreign players rather than develop potential England Test stars, even though internationals are the cash cow which keeps the domestic game going.

Leicestershire became the first county to sign a 'Kolpak' player last month in former South Africa Test spinner Claude Henderson. Although counties are nominally restricted to two overseas players per team, the development of European law in recent years has allowed, for example, South African batsman Sven Koenig to play for Middlesex as a 'home' signing because he also holds an Italian passport. And it was this loophole which Leicestershire chairman Neil Davidson attacked after his own club had came under fire for signing Henderson. "The EU passport holders loophole has been well exploited by all but three counties in recent years," said Davidson.

"At the end of last season there were no less than 22 such players in our domestic game. Leicestershire had none and were relegated." Richard Bevan, chief executive of England's Professional Cricketers Association (PCA) agreed it was "not all about Kolpak", saying on Thursday: "The real issue is the number of non-England players.

"The counties have to be made aware of their responsibility for developing England qualified players. "One way forward, which I believe the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) are looking at, is incentivising the grant they distribute to the counties (approximately 1.3 million pounds per county) based on the number of England players they are fielding.

"I don't think this would be illegal under EU law. It would just be a way of recognising the work some counties do in developing youngsters who could possibly be selected for England." But others aren't so sure, saying such a ruling would constitute a "restraint of trade", adding that ECB plans to distribute funds based on teams' success could encourage 'short-termism'. -AFP