There is a move afoot to increase the number of overseas players appearing in English county cricket. It came in a media release from the England and Wales Cricket Board about the proposals for restructuring the first-class game to be discussed by the First-Class Forum (FCF) on April 11th. Among the points under discussion will be:

"Overseas players. The FCF will decide whether to allow the registration of a second unqualified player, or whether to keep the status quo of one unqualified player per first-class county."

Looking at the lists of players contracted to county clubs for the coming season, you wonder whether the one per county ruling did not disappear a long time ago. No fewer than 65 players signed on by counties for this season were born outside England and Wales and, interestingly, exactly half of the county captains did not draw their first breath in this country.

It should be stated immediately that there is nothing underhand or unscrupulous about this situation. English cricket has for many years taken players who happened to be born overseas and accepted them into the family. Just look at some of the men who have captained England who were born elsewhere.

At the moment, Nasser Hussain is an example of just such a case, having been born in Madras. Colin Cowdrey was also born in India, Allan Lamb and Tony Greig in South Africa, Ted Dexter in Italy, Donald Carr in Germany, Freddie Brown from Peru, 'Plum' Warner in the West Indies and another cricketing knight, 'Gubby' Allen from Australia. And that is by no means an exhaustive list.

There have been times when there were enough players born overseas in leading roles in county cricket that it was almost possible to select the England team entirely from such a background. In fact, the England-qualified side would almost certainly have beaten an English-born eleven.

The reason that a situation whereby a number of foreign-born players can appear for the same team is down to the qualification regulations. The rules are drawn up by the ECB and the counties, quite properly, do their best to strengthen their playing staff by applying those rules, sometimes in an imaginative way.

A passport from the European community is a useful loophole, as Hampshire found when they were looking for wicket-keeping cover. They discovered that Nic Pothas, an established member of the Gauteng side who has appeared in three one-day internationals for South Africa, carries a Greek passport.

Some counties are better than others at spreading the net far and wide. Champions at the moment are Middlesex. Having signed Abdur Razzaq as their overseas player for the coming season, the Pakistani all-rounder will find himself as one of 11 players born abroad on the staff. Five South Africans, two Pakistanis, two Australians, a Kenyan and an Irishman are all to be found at Lord's.

Among other exotic birthplaces for English-qualified players are Bermuda (David Hemp of Glamorgan), Papua New Guinea (Geraint Jones of Kent), Kuala Lumpur (Arul Suppiah of Somerset) and Utrecht (Bas Zuiderant of Sussex).

Gloucestershire pulled off a coup during the winter when they signed opening batsman Craig Spearman, who played in 19 Tests and 51 one-day internationals for New Zealand, to play alongside official overseas player Ian Harvey from Australia.

Spearman, who holds a British passport courtesy of his Welsh mother, himself explains: "I came to England in July with the intention of starting a career outside cricket. I recently completed a degree in business studies and finance, but the events of September 11 have meant that the banking industry is a little gloomy at the moment.

"I found out that the eligibility rules have changed for me to play cricket over here and I have qualified quite fortuitously. The rules state that I must not have played international or first-class cricket in the 12 months before the English season starts next April and my last game was in March."

With the expanding international cricket calendar, it is difficult for counties to pick an overseas player and expect to keep him for the whole season. Sussex, with Murray Goodwin, and Hampshire, with Neil Johnson, have quality international cricketers who have chosen to end their Test careers early. However, that is not the case with most others who become resigned to losing their star players for what are sometimes considerable chunks of the season.

Worcestershire and Nottinghamshire are two such counties. With Andy Bichel not becoming available for Worcestershire until May 8th at the end of Australia's tour of South Africa, they have stepped in to sign New South Wales pace bowler Stuart Clark until Bichel arrives.

Nottinghamshire have a similar problem with their overseas signing, Chris Cairns. With New Zealand arranging a tour of Pakistan, May 8th is the end of that tour as well, and so the Trent Bridge club have gone to South Africa to enlist the services of Lance Klusener.

There is no doubt that overseas players add variety and quality to English cricket. They might not always guarantee success, but their influence can be significant in terms of both their own performances and what they can teach young English-qualified players – wherever they happened to have been born.

© CricInfo