Proteas prodigy Tristan Stubbs has mingled his international commitments across the South African winter with white-ball franchise opportunities but his development as a cricketer might have benefitted more had he secured a full county cricket stint.
David Bedingham, who is at Durham for much of the English summer, is the only batter who is in realistic Proteas contention playing red-ball cricket on the County Cricket scene.
Dean Elgar, who is at Essex, has retired and Colin Ingram, now a Glamorgan stalwart, isn’t likely to get a call from Shukri Conrad.
Stubbs has opted to take up a Caribbean Premier League contract which is something that makes perfect sense for him to do on an economic level.
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The inventive Proteas batter has recently bolstered his worth as a T20 gun for hire and a CPL deal will certainly net him a greater bag as it were than a long and dreary summer in England.
However, Stubbs has been a player who has set out his stall to be a multi-format international star and while his promise in red-ball cricket is just as evident as his white-ball talents he could have done with an extended period facing up to the Dukes ball in English conditions to sharpen his technique.
Stubbs accepted a contract in the Hundred last season and did reasonably well to adapt to the conditions and strange format of that tournament.
While overseas player slots are limited in County Cricket, there must have been teams that would have jumped at the chance to deploy Stubbs across their First Class campaign.
He would have been unable to commit across the full summer due to his international commitments but might have been able to come to a similar arrangement as Bedingham at Durham.
Bedingham has enjoyed a strong stint in the County game and already had experience of playing in England.
In his most recent match he notched a double century and put up a Durham record partnership and he has notched three hundreds already,
If someone like Bedingham, with piles of First Class cricket in the bank, can benefit from a spell in the County game then there is little doubt that it would aid the development arc of someone like Stubbs.
With the limited international schedule of the Proteas across recent months this would have been an ideal time for Stubbs to dip his toe into County Cricket, especially with four big home Tests looming in the South African summer.
