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The Derbyshire County Cricket Club has signed up the Sri Lankan Captain Mahela Jayawardene and West Indian Wavell Hinds for next season. While Mahela will be playing as an overseas player, Hinds will be under the Kolpak ruling.

The Sri Lankan Captain Mahela Jayawardene is yet to play County Cricket although he has had a successful International Career that started in 1997. The ECB has brought in a new rule which would be in place for next season onwards which is to restrict the number of overseas players to just one.

Jamaican Wavell Hinds who last played for the West Indies in October 2006 will be eligible to play as a Kolpak player which means that he will not come under the overseas player tag. The Kolpak rule which has been highly controversial in English Cricket means that a player from a country that shares an associate trading relationship with the European Union can play as a professional. The chief criteria for the Kolpak ruling for such a player is that he should not have played internationally for a minimum of one year which applies perfectly to Wavell Hinds. In fact, a Kolpak player can even go onto represent England if selected according to the ruling!

The problem for Wavell Hinds after signing up as a Kolpak player is that his International Career becomes highly doubtful. If he wants to play for West Indies during the next one year, then he has to cancel his Kolpak deal. Hinds anyhow has been a discard in the West Indian team and was also banned recently for this season in the Domestic Tournaments in the West Indies after verbally abusing the Umpires in a match.

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