Bye Elgar, hello Quinny and Rilee: New report shows traditional cricket contracts are dead

South African cricket and its supporters - particularly the purists - should brace themselves for more Quinton de Kocks and Rilee Rossouws on the domestic circuit than Dean Elgars.

That is one of the key takeaways from the Federation of International Cricketers' Association's (FICA) latest 2022 Men's Global Employment Report, the survey that provides a fascinating and even disconcerting snapshot of the state of the game from a players' perspective.

No less than 40% of the world's leading T20 players are now fully-fledged "mercenaries", free agents who aren't tied to any form of national or domestic contract. 

Furthermore, 42% of players currently adopt a hybrid model to their employment, combining a national or domestic contract with at least a gig in one of the leading overseas T20 leagues.

This is particularly relevant to South Africa, where only four of the Proteas' 16 contracted players (Elgar, Temba Bavuma, Keegan Petersen and Andile Phehlukwayo) don't have a T20 assignment on their radar to supplement their income.

On a broader level, it means a massive 82% of players around the world aren't satisfied with settling just for a national contract.

"Whilst historically the professional player employment pathway was a vertical one, working upwards in their own country towards international honours/ central contracts, increasingly, the horizontal employment pathway has expanded, with the opportunity to ply their trade playing in multiple domestic leagues as an overseas player, either in addition to, or instead of their home contract," FICA noted.

"This report period has seen the continuation of the trend of premature 'flight of talent' towards domestic leagues, which is driven by push and pull factors."

Already, De Kock has