from 2011 he becomes our overseas player, up till then he plays as a Kolpack. As Yorkshire have the least amount of kolpacks playing for them than any other county, it will have the least effect on us. Durham, and most of the other counties will need to sign as many as 6 players to replace their existing kolpacks. It will greatly benefit us as the majority of our players are England qualified.
our second team is usually the strongest around (and is fully home grown) so we should be able to plug the Kolpaks more easily than others.
No doubt the big boys like Notts will just cover their Kolpaks by purchasing the stars from the minnows and the gulf between div 1 and div 2 will further widen.
The Seconds aren't quite fully home grown. Ballance is still listed by Cricinfo as Zimbabwean, but whether that reflects his status in the eyes of the ICC I don't know.
One possible negative effect of the de-Kolpackization process for Yorkshire in particular is that the club may lose several of its younger players and Academy/Second XI prospects. With teams such as Durham needing to re-jig substantial parts of their squad, they'll inevitably cast their sights to some of the several Yorkshire players who either can't get in our side, or aren't playing enough to justify staying with Yorkshire.
One has to wonder about the future of the likes of Richard Pyrah, Adam Lyth, David Wainwright, Steve Patterson, Azeem Rafiq, and Jon Bairstow; and several prospects in the Academy.
How/when does he qualify as being English? It may not be an avenue he wants to go down and therefore it's only right and proper he be considered an overseas player. I imagine there's a fair few of the current Kolpacker's who have no chance of being internationals (again) that will be English qualified when this ruling kicks in.
When Rudolph originally signed a lot was made of him wanting to one day be English qualified, that's being watered down to the point it's almost accepted he will one day play again for South Africa. In that case he has to be an overseas player should he want to stay.
No need for a series of hearings, meetings or discussions, just ask all the Kolpacker's if they wish to be English or not. Those that do will become so upon reaching the necessary criteria, those that don't immediately become ''overseas.'' Write out a binding contract to those that ''do'' and if in the future they decide they ''don't'' then they must repay the sum of the contract to the ECB. Sorted!
I vaguely remember when Pietersen was qualifying he had to show he lived in England all year round (heard him moaning about how cold it got in winter), Rudolph goes back to SA in our off season as far as I know so isn't attempting to qualify I'd say.