Simon Harmer had given up hopes of playing a Test match for South Africa when he signed a Kolpak deal to play for English county team Essex in 2017. The off-spinner’s chances of playing another Test match in the country were bleak after a mediocre performance in India in 2015. Harmer, however, played a key role in the team’s historic 2-0 win in the two-match series with his impressive performances on the ongoing tour of India.
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The Kolpak agreement
“Not in a million years and so it seems unrealistic,” Harmer said on Wednesday after India registered a massive 408-run win in the second Test. The Kolpak agreement was a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that allowed citizens of EU treaty countries like South Africa to work in any EU country with the same rights as a citizen of that country. “Yes, I think when I signed the Kolpak agreement, one of the conditions in it was that you would never play for your country of birth again. So I accepted that fact,” the 36-year-old spinner said in response to a question.
Harmer, who won the Pair of the Series award for taking 17 wickets in two Tests in India over the past few weeks, was hoping for a great performance on this tour. “I always wanted to be able to look back at the end of my career and say I was at my best and what steps I took to improve when I was dropped from the national team,” he said. “I just wanted to say I left no stone unturned,” he said. Harmer was 28 on his last tour of India and would have thought it a joke if someone had told him he would be touring India in 2025.
“I tried my best but I never thought I would get another chance in international cricket. I never thought I would come to India again,” he said with a smile. “So to be here, to win 2-0, to be named Man of the Series, it feels very special and surreal. I think it will take some time to understand and absorb. I think it’s very special,” Harmer said. Harmer has played 14 Test matches in the last 10 years, with a seven-year gap between 2015 and 2022.
