David Bedingham leaves door open slightly for unlikely Proteas call despite jetting off to England

South Africa's leading First-Class run-scorer David Bedingham hinted that he would accept a Proteas call-up in the unlikely event it came despite his pursuit of permanent UK residency.

The Durham-contracted batter left SA for England early last month after playing his final game for Western Province in the CSA 4-Day Franchise series against the Lions in Cape Town.

Bedingham, who has England-born grandparents, is in year three of five that he needs in order to qualify for permanent UK residency and earn a British passport.

Everyone in his family has a British passport, bar him and his brother.

The 27-year-old told ESPN he was desperate to play Test cricket but had never gotten as much as a call from Cricket South Africa's selectors, headed by Victor Mpitsang.

"I'm just keen to focus on scoring runs wherever I play, and hopefully, through that, I can crack it at Test cricket at some stage," said Bedingham.

"That's always been the plan. [Selectors] never spoke to me directly, but I didn't expect them to.

"It's completely up to them. If they were keen to pick me, perfect, but if not … I don't expect any favours.

"If they want to go a different route, then that's perfect too. I was hearing lots of things in the media and from friends saying, 'you turned down playing Test cricket', that type of stuff. That just wasn't true.

"Everyone was like 'he expects to play', 'he expects a call', stuff like that - I didn't. I don't want people thinking that I turned down Test cricket. The plan all along was to get a passport - not just for cricket, but for after as well. Me and my missus like staying in Newcastle and in England, so we see it as a long-term plan to live here."

Mpitsang told Sport24 mere days after Bedingham departed that the former