Surrey hope to have their Kolpak players Hashim Amla and Morne Morkel available for the start of the county season on August 1.
Both players need visas to enter the country, with Amla currently in South Africa and Morkel in Sydney, with his Australian wife and family.
Travelling to the UK from South Africa currently requires a two-week quarantine on arrival, meaning visas must be obtained promptly, but offices such administrative tasks are becoming easier as offices open.
This is the final season where players – mainly south African – are allowed to play county cricket as local players, with Britain’s departure from the European Union ending the Contonou Agreement and, therefore, the Kolpak ruling.
Amla and Morkel, who joined Surrey in 2018, are both under contract for next season and will be the club’s overseas players. Counties will be allowed two overseas players, not just one.
Many counties are set to be without foreign talent when the season begins with the first-class Bob Willis Trophy, due to a shortage of cash in the game and difficulties with international travel.
Middlesex, for instance, have deferred the two-year contract of their new club captain Peter Handscomb, the 29-year-old Australian, until next summer.
There is disquiet among some counties that others are pressing on with sticking with contracts for overseas players for this September’s Vitality Blast. Some counties believe spending money on overseas players is a bad look, given 16 of 18 clubs have used government money to put players on furlough, and English players have had to take paycuts and wait so long for game time.
Meanwhile England have moved to Old Trafford, where the Second Test starts on Thursday, 1-0 down in the three-match series after a thrilling game in Southampton.
They are likely to name a squad for the match after training this afternoon, with the microscope on Joe Denly, who is set to miss out with Joe Root returning, and the fitness of the fast bowlers. Stuart Broad is likely to come back into the XI.
