South Africa v England: ECB must overhaul county system harming national interests

England and Wales Cricket Board must overhaul a county system that is making a national team reliant on overseas-born talent.

The local quip here is that this Test series is between South Africa A and South Africa B, as 15 of the 22 players have been born in South Africa and no more than seven in England. This is not entirely fair but there is some truth in it.
England can take pride in having produced their captain, Andrew Strauss. He might have first tasted cricket in Australia at the age of six or seven, but he learnt the game in England. So too their wicketkeeper/batsman, Matthew Prior.

But it is debatable whether Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen would have played the same way if they had been brought up in England. The answer is probably not.
Trott and Pietersen are smart about the way they play – to the extent that Trott does not try to play like Pietersen. They know their games in a way which so many county cricketers do not. In their attitude they are the same as Graeme Smith or Jacques Kallis.
In England, northerners are perceived to be tougher than southerners, whatever the reality.
In the same way, South Africans are perceived to be tougher than cricketers brought up in England – and county cricket cannot be all that tough if the leading batsman by a street in the last few seasons has been Mark Ramprakash, now aged 40. In what other country is domestic first-class cricket dominated by a 40 year-old?
Administrators in any other country would probably hang their heads in shame and look for solutions. Sadly, this has not been the case with those responsible who cannot see the solution, while many on the outside can.
The next question is whether this arrangement – whereby so many South Africans play cricket in, and for, England – is a healthy one? Because there will be more where they came from, with Craig Kieswetter next in line – the whisper being that he is a very good batsman with a couple of question-marks about his wicketkeeping.
As far as I'm concerned, this arrangement is detrimental to both countries. The self-interest of the first-class counties seems to override every other consideration. And so long as it is the counties first, England second, there will be more and more overseas players looking for commercially viable futures in England.
In South Africa there is bound to be a racial connotation in just about everything. Perhaps Pietersen was a pawn in the bigger picture when he was playing for KwaZulu-Natal.
Some South African parents and kids will feel they might not get the right opportunity and look to England in future – as will their ever-eager agents.
So the England and Wales Cricket Board needs to redress the balance. It has to look at the county academies and the national academy, at the infrastructure, the weather, the coaching and the incentives to make sure that English cricket produces more England players.
When I started playing, changing clubs or counties was out of the question, never mind countries. But players are becoming independent contractors – the first being Andrew Flintoff, although through injury. In future they may become more reluctant to sign long-term deals with their respective countries, playing in the Indian Premier League and preferring to play Tests and/or county cricket on a pay-per-game basis.
Perhaps Pietersen might even be the first of them.