I'd think a lot of them would chose to pursue other careers.. SA franchise cricket doesn't have the lure to be honest.. Hope I'm very much wrong..
Im with Langers (saying Rich would be much use in this case
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A lot of guys would stop and look for a career outside cricket. Franchise cricket only offers longterm stability for few and the SA mentality is to drop cricket and pursue a 'real' job.
Lot of guys are on twelve month contract nowadays i.e. the ones who half decent and have a relatively comfortable life. Still get quite a few cricketers though who combine both a professional career with cricket. I know the Dolphins have a quite a few cricketers who even work during the cricketing season to make a few extra Rand and have been known to skip away fixtures to fulfill work commitments.
I see. Well there are already a fair few who've had long-term provincial\franchise careers amongst those playing as overseas-players or Kolpaks. What d'you reckon would be the case for these? Excluded are those who could be classed as current internationals. I guess there's 4 categories:
Getting on but with a successful career in SA behind them and potentially still with something to offer:
Charl Langeveldt, Rory Kleinveldt, Imran Tahir, Martin van Jaarsveld, Boeta Dippenaar, Hylton Ackerman, Claude Henderson, Garnett Kruger, Johann Louw, Zander de Bruyn, Charl Willoughby, Alfonso Thomas.
Getting on with a successful career in SA behind them but ICL contracted:
Dale Benkenstein, Mornantau Hayward, Justin Kemp, Andrew Hall, Lance Klusener, Nico Boje, Johannes van der Wath.
Young or not old and with some franchise success:
Dominic Telo, Ryan McLaren, Francois du Plessis, Dillon du Preez, Jacques Rudolph.
Never good enough for franchise cricket:
Greg Smith, Garry Park, Grant Hodnett, Jacques du Toit, Riki Wessels.
There's also Deon Kruis, who I'm pretty sure is about to hang-up his boots.
Obviously those in the second group, playing in the ICL, don't need to do anything other than play ICL as that's enough of an earner, though each of them would improve the quality of the SA system if they weren't banned (as IIRR they are). Surely the third group would go back and try their luck? The first and the fourth are those who I'd guess have most questions to ask themselves.