Chapman's Blackcaps call sparks the question: Is it time to rethink the Associate landscape?

JAMES COYNE: Mark Chapman’s debut for New Zealand raises an interesting debate about how the best Associate players can get ahead in the game

^{"As things stand, the best players from much of the Associate world are unable to play in county cricket"}

When, as expected, Mark Chapman takes the field at Wellington for New Zealand in the T20 Tri Series against England, he will not be a run-of-the-mill debutant.

His grounding in Hong Kong makes for an interesting debate about how the best Associate players forge their careers in the cricketing world.

Chapman, 23, was born in Hong Kong in 1994. His father, Peter, is from New Zealand, and was the Crown Prosecutor for the Hong Kong government; his Chinese mother, Anne, worked in the lucrative financial sector. Chapman learned his early cricket among the high-rises of Hong Kong.

He made his debut for Hong Kong Under-15s aged just 11, and stayed in their system even after leaving to board at King’s College, Auckland at 13. He broke into the 1st XI in Year 10 as a left-arm spinner batting down the order.

Chapman is now a high-class left-handed batsman, making his first List A century for Auckland in 2016, and made it clear a while back that he felt his future lay with New Zealand, citing Test cricket as an important aspiration. Hong Kong may well win the next ICC Intercontinental Cup, but there is no guarantee that would necessarily lead to Test status.

There are many more practical reasons for him to make his move – not least the access to a first-class system, the best facilities, and better pay. And the New Zealand system has clearly played a huge part in making him the player that he is.

Chapman is on the verge of his first international appearance for New Zealand

No one can blame Chapman. Why wouldn’t he want to play the highest standard of cricket, and be as good as he can? But there are some fans out there who would rather see him helping Hong Kong qualify for the 2019 World Cup in Harare in a few weeks time than taking on England at Wellington.

The reason for that is the inequity in world cricket. Ryan Campbell, the Netherlands head coach who used to live and play in Hong Kong, told The Cricketer recently that his group of players have been “making do with the smell of the oily rag” since they lost one-day international status three years ago.

And “the oily rag” is a decent way of summing up how some Associate Members struggle, on shoestring budgets and with small playing numbers, to try to keep pace with the world’s leading cricketing nations.

And Chapman certainly will not be with Hong Kong at the World Cup Qualifier. Once he makes his debut for New Zealand, he would be required to serve a three-year requalification period if he wished to go back and play for Hong Kong.

MARK CHAPMAN

ODIs: Two matches; 151 runs at 151.00, HS 124*, one hundred

T20Is: 19 matches; 392 runs at 23.05, HS 63*

First-class: 13 matches; 689 runs at 31.31, HS 81

List A: 33 matches; 1,429 runs at 54.96, HS 157, four hundreds

T20s: 52 matches; 1,036 runs at 24.09

The ICC have, in fairness, shown some flexibility with this rule in the past: ahead of the 2011 World Cup, they gave special dispensation to Ed Joyce, who was allowed back to play for Ireland earlier than permitted.

Ireland were desperate to have him back; the same would surely be the case if Chapman were to fall out of favour with New Zealand. But, in Chapman’s case, he is probably so good that he might well have a 15-year career for New Zealand in the offing.

Hong Kong, meanwhile, have lost not only one of their best players. As a cricketer of part-Chinese origin, Chapman is potentially an important standard-bearer for Cricket Hong Kong as they look to spread the game beyond expat communities.

Hong Kong will also be crucial if cricket is to ever have a chance of cracking mainland China. Let us hope that he can do so well for New Zealand that he can go on to be a flagship figure for the Hong Kong T20 Blitz, which completed its third season at the weekend.

Is there another way? The great South African Barry Richards suggested last year that players ought to be allowed to play for more than one nation depending on availability.

Playing so fast and loose with national teams would not go down well with everyone; and, if done clumsily, there could be chaos. The last thing cricket fans want to see is players flying in and out of tours to play for different countries depending on the format.

Delray Rawlins in action for Sussex

But, for many Associate nations, a little flexibility really would make all the difference. The Bermudian allrounder Delray Rawlins, for instance, went to school at Bede’s and made the switch in time to play for England Under-19s; he is now on the Sussex staff.

He probably has several years yet before the full England side come calling, and in the meantime Bermuda could certainly do with him in WCL events, bowling 10 overs of tidy left-arm spin and batting fluently in the middle order.

The recent Under-19 World Cup suggests there could be more debates like this to come: Akash Gill just struck Canada’s first century in the Under-19 World Cup, but he looks set for a career in New Zealand.

This is not the only complexity for Associate players. As things stand, the best players from much of the Associate world are unable to play in county cricket because ECB rules stipulate that official overseas players should come from a Full Member nation.

That is why it is only now – the first English season after Afghanistan secured Full Member status – that Rashid Khan was signed by Sussex. In years gone by counties enquired about signing Hamid Hassan, Mohammad Shahzad and Mohammad Nabi to name just a few, but fell foul of visa criteria. (Irish and Dutch players have always been able to get round this due to their EU passports.)

^{Rashid Khan is heading to Hove}

As revealed in The Cricketer last summer, Middlesex were prepared to sign Chapman’s former Hong Kong team-mate Anshuman Rath as an overseas player, but were unable to secure the necessary visa because he was contracted to an Associate nation.

There is not much about visas that the ECB can control, but Angus Fraser, the Middlesex director of cricket, did write to the ECB asking if they could reconsider their criteria over what they considered a high-enough standard of cricket.

“I guess the ECB are worried about too many players from lower-ranked nations coming into the domestic game,” said Fraser.

“But we’ve seen the promotion of Afghanistan and Ireland to Test status, and the Associates are producing some very good cricketers.”

As T20 continues to grow, and the role of impact players becomes more important, teams will be looking at Associate players more and more. The time has come to rethink some of the landscape.