David Bedingham

When David Bedingham was unveiled as a Durham batsman before the start of 2020, he abandoned hopes of an international future with South Africa with the conviction that he was about to make his life in England. It left his coach at Cape Cobras, Ashwell Price, to complain: "We can't keep pretending there is nothing wrong." There was no doubt that Cricket South Africa was the target of his ire.

Bedingham, at 25, was about to enter his prime and was in his second season as a contracted Cobras player. He played in the Western Cape throughout his career and represented the South African Under-19 side in 2013.

Prince said: "It's high time that CSA sits down and look at things a little bit closer and don't beat around the bush of why people are leaving. Get to the crux of why people are leaving. Face it, confront the brutal facts."

Bedingham, though, in common with several South African players of this era, played only one season of county cricket before the UK's departure from the European Union meant that the Kolpak qualification to be registered in county cricket no longer applied and nor did the ancestral visa which Bedingham had hoped to utilize.

He had made a solid contribution in that first season in 2020, one that was truncated because of the Covid-19 global pandemic. The following year, Durham gambled upon naming him as one of their two overseas players. His response was emphatic as he struck a career-best 180 not out against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in the opening match of the season and, two games later, registered Durham's second highest Championship score of their history with 257 against Derbyshire on a relaid Riverside square.