# List of Kolpak cricketers

The Kolpak ruling was made on 8 May 2003 in favour of Slovak handball player Maroš Kolpak, by the European Court of Justice. Maroš Kolpak had lost his contract with German handball club TSV Ostringen, as his team already had two non-EU players. Kolpak appealed to the European Court of Justice, claiming that he should not be considered as a non-EU player as he was a German resident, and Slovakia was part of the European Union Association Agreement. The court ruled in favour of Kolpak, and allowed citizens of countries that had free trade treaties with the EU, and were part of European Union Association Agreements, to work in any EU country. In March 2004, South African cricketer Claude Henderson became the first player to sign a Kolpak agreement, which ended his international career.
The ruling allowed citizens of around 100 nations to play cricket in any EU nation without being considered as an overseas player. The Cotonou Agreement allows the citizens of most Caribbean and African nations to be eligible for signing Kolpak agreements. However, the British Home Office stipulates that a player must have a valid work permit for four years or must have a specified number of appearances in international cricket to sign a Kolpak deal. Kolpak players older than 18 years can qualify to represent England after playing for seven years for a county and gaining citizenship. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) pays £1,100 less to a county for each County Championship game and £275 less for each One Day match per Kolpak player who plays instead of a domestic cricketer. This is aimed at reducing the mass arrivals of overseas players into county cricket.
Cricketers born in British overseas territories can play county cricket as locals and need not sign Kolpak agreements. For instance, Omari Banks, who has played for the West Indies, was eligible to play for Leicestershire and Somerset as a local player because he is from Anguilla (a British overseas territory).
Kolpak deals are not possible once Britain withdrew from the European Union as part of Brexit.

## List of players

| Year | Name | Country | County team(s) | Notes |
| 2004 | Claude Henderson | South Africa | Leicestershire | Henderson was the first player to sign under the Kolpak rule |
| 2004 | Grant Flower | Zimbabwe | Essex | His brother Andy Flower also played for Essex, but he held a British passport. Grant returned to represent Zimbabwe in 2010. |
| 2004 | Greg Smith | South Africa | Derbyshire, Essex | Smith joined Essex in 2011, again as a Kolpak player. He is South African, though he has never played international cricket. |
| 2004 | Ottis Gibson | Barbados | Leicestershire | |
| 2005 | Riki Wessels | South Africa | Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire | Riki is the son of former cricketer Kepler Wessels. He joined Nottinghamshire in 2011 on a Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa. |
| 2005 | Charl Willoughby | South Africa | Leicestershire, Somerset | Willoughby joined Somerset in 2006 and qualified as a UK resident in 2011 |
| 2005 | Martin van Jaarsveld | South Africa | Kent, Glamorgan | van Jaarsevld moved to Glamorgan in 2012 |
| 2005 | Murray Goodwin | Zimbabwe | Sussex | Goodwin had earlier represented Sussex from 2001 as an overseas player |
| 2005 | Zander de Bruyn | South Africa | Worcestershire, Somerset, Surrey | |
| 2006 | Lance Klusener | South Africa | Northamptonshire | |
| 2006 | Paul Harris | South Africa | Warwickshire | Harris left the county when he was selected for the South African Test side in 2007 |
| 2007 | Anthony Ireland | Zimbabwe | Gloucestershire, Middlesex | Ireland moved to Middlesex in 2011, again as a Kolpak player |
| 2007 | Faf du Plessis | South Africa | Lancashire | du Plessis returned to South Africa when the new rules were formed in 2010 and made his ODI debut in 2011. |
| 2007 | Garnett Kruger | South Africa | Leicestershire | Kruger joined Glamorgan for the 2009 season |
| 2007 | Jacques Rudolph | South Africa | Yorkshire | Rudolph left Yorkshire in 2011 to play for South Africa again. He later represented Surrey and Glamorgan as an overseas player. |
| 2007 | Pedro Collins | Barbados | Surrey, Middlesex | He moved to Middlesex in 2010, again as Kolpak player |
| 2007 | Ryan McLaren | South Africa | Kent | McLaren left Kent in 2009 to play for South Africa again. He later represented Middlesex, Hampshire and Lancashire as an overseas player. |
| 2007 | Tyron Henderson | South Africa | Middlesex | |
| 2008 | Alfonso Thomas | South Africa | Somerset | |
| 2008 | Andre Adams | New Zealand | Nottinghamshire, Hampshire | Adams moved to Hampshire in 2014, again as a Kolpak player |
| 2008 | Andrew Hall | South Africa | Northamptonshire | |
| 2008 | Charl Langeveldt | South Africa | Derbyshire | |
| 2008 | Corey Collymore | Barbados | Sussex, Middlesex | |
| 2008 | Dillon du Preez | South Africa | Leicestershire | du Preez is South African though he never played international cricket |
| 2008 | Dominic Telo | South Africa | Derbyshire | |
| 2008 | Dwayne Smith | Barbados | Sussex | His Kolpak status expired in 2010 though he continued playing for Sussex as an overseas player |
| 2008 | Friedel de Wet | South Africa | Hampshire | |
| 2008 | Jermaine Lawson | Jamaica | Leicestershire | |
| 2008 | Johan van der Wath | South Africa | Northamptonshire | |
| 2008 | Justin Kemp | South Africa | Kent | |
| 2008 | Nantie Hayward | South Africa | Hampshire, Derbyshire | Hayward joined Derbyshire for the 2009 season |
| 2008 | Nicky Boje | South Africa | Northamptonshire | |
| 2008 | Shaun Pollock | South Africa | Durham | |
| 2008 | Wavell Hinds | Jamaica | Derbyshire | |
| 2009 | André Nel | South Africa | Surrey | |
| 2010 | Neil McKenzie | South Africa | Hampshire | |
| 2011 | Johann Myburgh | South Africa | Hampshire, Somerset | Myburgh played for Durham as an overseas player in 2012 and joined Somerset in 2013 as a Kolpak player |
| 2012 | Gareth Roderick | South Africa | Gloucestershire | |
| 2013 | Ashwell Prince | South Africa | Lancashire | Prince had earlier represented Lancashire from 2009 as an overseas player. |
| 2013 | Brendan Nash | Jamaica | Kent | Nash joined as an overseas player in 2012 and got Kolpak status in 2013. |
| 2013 | Kyle Jarvis | Zimbabwe | Lancashire | |
| 2014 | Colin Ingram | South Africa | Glamorgan | |
| 2015 | Alviro Petersen | South Africa | Lancashire | Petersen was banned for 2 years by Cricket South Africa in December 2016 for attempting to cover up match fixing in the 2015–16 Ram Slam T20 Challenge. |
| 2015 | Brendan Taylor | Zimbabwe | Nottinghamshire | |
| 2015 | Fidel Edwards | Barbados | Hampshire | |
| 2015 | Richard Levi | South Africa | Northamptonshire | |
| 2016 | Ravi Rampaul | Trinidad and Tobago | Surrey, Derbyshire | Rampaul moved to Derbyshire in 2018, again as a Kolpak player |
| 2016 | Hardus Viljoen | South Africa | Derbyshire/Kent | |
| 2016 | Simon Harmer | South Africa | Essex | |
| 2016 | Stiaan van Zyl | South Africa | Sussex | |
| 2017 | Tino Best | Barbados | Hampshire | |
| 2017 | David Wiese | South Africa | Sussex | |
| 2017 | Daryn Smit | South Africa | Derbyshire | |
| 2017 | Grant Elliott | New Zealand | Warwickshire | |
| 2017 | Kyle Abbott | South Africa | Hampshire | |
| 2017 | Rilee Rossouw | South Africa | Hampshire | |
| 2017 | Marchant de Lange | South Africa | Glamorgan | |
| 2017 | Shivnarine Chanderpaul | Guyana | Lancashire | |
| 2018 | Heino Kuhn | South Africa | Kent | |
| 2018 | Morné Morkel | South Africa | Surrey | |
| 2018 | Blessing Muzarabani | Zimbabwe | Northamptonshire | |
| 2018 | Wayne Parnell | South Africa | Worcestershire | |
| 2019 | Duanne Olivier | South Africa | Yorkshire | |
| 2019 | Miguel Cummins | Barbados | Middlesex | |