Victorian fast bowler Fergus O’Neill has returned to Australia after completing his 28-day stint with Nottinghamshire in the 2025 County Championship, due to visa limitations imposed by the UK immigration policy for overseas players.
The 24-year-old was signed by Nottinghamshire for the opening four rounds of the 2024 County Championship as a replacement for South African seamer Dane Paterson. In those four matches, he claimed 21 wickets at an average of 17.90, the most by any bowler across either division, while maintaining an economy rate of 2.67. His standout performances included five-wicket hauls against Durham and Warwickshire, with a career-best 5 for 19 at Edgbaston. With the bat, he scored 42 against Essex and 50 against Warwickshire.
Why was his County Championship stint reduced to four games?
O’Neill was only eligible to play in the UK for 28 days under a “Permitted Paid Engagement” (PPE) visa. This visa is typically granted to individuals undertaking specific, time-limited professional engagements and does not allow for extended stays or renewals within the same season.
Under the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) governing body endorsement guidelines for the International Sportsperson visa route, overseas cricketers must meet specific criteria to qualify for a longer-term stay. These include:
- The cricketer must have played a minimum of one Test Match during the 36 months immediately prior to the date of the Governing Body Endorsement application or five Test Matches during the 72 months immediately prior to the date of the Governing Body Endorsement application, provided that the country represented by the cricketer was on each occasion a Full Member of the ICC (Full Members are Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe as well as the ECB); and which were approved and recorded by the ICC as authorised Test Matches; or
- During the 36 months immediately prior to the date of the governing body endorsement application the cricketer must have played in at least fifteen One Day Internationals and/or International Twenty20 matches for his/her country or, in the case of a cricketer seeking endorsement to participate in a Women’s Regional Partner team, twelve One Day Internationals and/or International Twenty20 matches (provided that the country represented by the cricketer was on each occasion a Full Member of the ICC) which were approved and recorded as authorised matches by the ICC; or
- The cricketer must be currently centrally contracted to the Cricket Board of the cricketer’s home country and in the current or most recent Test Match or One Day International or International Twenty20 team squad, provided that the home country represented by the cricketer was a Full Member of the ICC; or
- During the 36 months immediately prior to the date of the governing body endorsement application, the cricketer must have played in a minimum of 20 Twenty20 matches in an ICC Full member country.
O’Neill does not hold international caps and is not a centrally contracted player either. The only way he could have received a visa extension was if he had played 20 domestic T20 matches in a full-member country in the last three years. However, he has only played 10 in his T20 career, and, as a result, he was not eligible for a full-season visa under the International Sportsperson route.
This scenario has also impacted other Australian players in the past. Last season, Chris Tremain, who led the 2023/24 Sheffield Shield wicket charts, was similarly restricted to a month-long stint at Northamptonshire after limited Big Bash League appearances in the cut-off period. Kent were also keen on having South Africa’s Beyers Swanepeol but he was ineligible due to insufficient T20 matches.
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