IT WAS announced this week that, after much complaint and accusations of favouritism by the ECB towards Scotland and Ireland, Holland are to be included next year in what is at present the FP Trophy.
This will be hugely important for Holland as our entry to regular cricket against the counties in 2003 was a major factor in our domination of associate cricket over the following few years.
It will give some excellent publicity to a game which is a minority sport in Holland, a country dominated by hockey and football.
Despite this, Holland have done well and should be commended. Players like Ryan ten Doeschate, Dirk Nannes and Alexei Kervezee, all born and raised in either South Africa or Australia, qualify to play for Holland through their Dutch parentage. Holland’s success has had a lot to do with having access to these excellent players.
In this globalised world, dual citizenship is very common and the lure of county cricket and good wages is very tempting for many cricketers born on foreign shores.
I am not picking on Holland. Every other cricketing country is able to take advantage of this – all except for Scotland.
Currently, there is an inequality in the qualification criteria and that places Scotland at a disadvantage compared to the other one-day international playing countries.
A player qualifies to play cricket for a country by way of three routes. He can either be born in that country, qualify by way of a four-year residency or qualify through having achieved citizenship.
It is this citizenship rule which is unfair to Scotland.
Warwickshire allrounder Neil Carter, for example, has been a hugely influential player for the Bears since his arrival in the UK in the late 1990s.
He is South African – born and raised in that country, the same as ten Doeschate.
Carter was able to move to the UK due the fact both his parents are Scottish and that, as such, he qualifies for dual citizenship.
However, if the rules were viewed without bias there is no difference between Carter and ten Doeschate and Carter should qualify for Scotland through having dual citizenship. But, as everyone knows, you cannot have citizenship of Scotland.
Carter is deemed British and in fact is viewed by the rules as more qualified to play for England.
This is not a political statement and I have no agenda towards independence, I am British and proudly so. But in a unique situation I am also Scottish and Neil Carter should also be given that consideration.
Carter wanted to play for Scotland and, as we are viewed by the ICC as a country in our own right, surely Carter should be viewed for qualification purposes as a citizen of Scotland.
This happens in other sports – notably rugby, in which any number of players have qualified and played for Scotland due to having Scottish grandparents.
This is not something which is difficult to change.
We do not need a referendum or national independence. We just need the ICC to open its eyes.