Where should loyalties lie?

Guys

A recent blog of mine for the Huffington Post UK here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/andrew-bloxham/county-cricket-where-shou_b_1302741.html

Summary: With the likes of Vernon Philander and Alviro Petersen being given stints in county cricket for the first half of this season, and ahead of the South Africa tour of England, do English counties have a duty to England to not give such players these opportunities to acclimatise, or should they be out to look after their own interests primarily?

As always, thoughts appreciated.

worked well with Phil Hughes. Went to Middlesex for a bit, scored a shed-load of runs, there was a general outcry, then Harmison scared the sh*t out of him in the Lions warm-up and he was dropped after two unsuccessful tests.

As a rule, English conditions aren't massively different to South African ones, so I'm not sure this makes a huge amount of difference anyway. It also gives the England batsmen/bowlers an early look at them and a chance to work them out, so in that sense it works both ways surely?

read your blog in a bit more detail, and I think you're overplaying the significance. Yes, it may help them a bit, but as you say they're not strangers to these conditions anyway. Phillander you point out could have difficulty in controlling the swinging ball, but I'd argue that

a) it swings in SA, so he's pretty used to those conditions
b) Taunton doesn't usually do much anyway.

In fact, there's a chance that the batsmen will thrive against him on the flat decks of Taunton and his confidence could be seriously dented as a result, much like Hughes's confidence was dented when Harmison attacked him in the Lions game in 09.

Absolutely, it can work both ways. There are numerous pros and cons to it.

I think with batsmen it isn't quite so prominent, given that they can play themselves out of form a lot easier than bowlers and have their weaknesses exposed much more regularly. However, I do find it far from ideal that South Africa's new starlet is given such an opportunity. It may work out well for us if he does get carted around down at Taunton, agreed.

With regard to conditions, England sees much more prodigious swing than South Africa, in general. Mastering that additional swing can be a bloody hard thing to do, as we have seen across the years, so I'd personally rather he wasn't given the chance to do so.

We will have to wait and see just how significant it proves to be, but I would have preferred Philander's abiding memory of England to have been his drastic spell at Middlesex prior to the Test series. This Somerset stint gives him the chance of redemption and to banish his own demons, if he has any.

The other argument of course is that having such players here should theoretically be good for English youngsters, by driving the overall county championship standard up. Also, it should ensure that the counties do well on the gates with spectators flocking to see them (hopefully).

im gonna be honest,

1. i like counties having overseas players, they help the youngsters, but i dont like it when they only play 1 year, and are made captain..(e.g, alviro peterson, glamorgan)

2.however counties should develop youngsters for national side......

so im sitting on the fence lol.

Another who can't make his mind up one way or another, although I think I'm leaning more to Fists argument regarding Philander's overriding memory being one of an unsuccessful spell at Middlesex then having the chance to redeem himself and gain confidence in English conditions. I agree the ball swings in SA but the conditions are still different, although nowhere near as different as those between the UK and the UAE! I also don't want batsmen to get used to the swinging ball either, and although the Harmison Hughes argument is a good counter to this how many other batsmen spring to mind where this has happened? Generally international players have the ability to adapt to most conditions and generally do so the more exposure they have to those conditions.

It is an issue that will never go away. Counties are always going to want the best overseas's player possible for the money and availability and invariably it will be those who are touring later in the summer who fit the bill as the best option. It would class as discrimination in the ECB banned the counties from signing foreign players if their international team were touring that summer so the only way it could work would be a 'gentleman's agreement' between every county, and that's not going to happen.

Great post, B91212, and pretty much mirrors my own thoughts.

Good feedback, guys, appreciated. Interesting topic.