Leading club Woodlands are urging the JCT600 Bradford League to do all in their powers to get the Home Office criteria for overseas players reduced for the 2009 season.

At the moment, the relevant Tier Two category for a working permit defines sporting professionals as "internationally established at the highest level, whose employment will make a significant contribution to the development of their sport at the highest level in the UK".

Good as the Bradford League is, that would rule out all of the overseas players from the 2007 campaign.

Woodlands secretary Brian Pearson said: "We need the Bradford League, via the League Cricket Conference, to get this definition reduced to include players of first-class standing."

Meanwhile, Aire-Wharfe League secretary Howard Clayton said of work permits at their annual meeting this week: "The potential for major problems is horrendous".

Andrew Carter, of the Sheffield office of the Border and Immigrations Agency, addressed the Bradford League annual meeting last week to update them on the new proposals regarding foreign professionals.

He said that Tier Two regulations will be set in stone by next April and that one person in each club will be a sponsorship manager i.e. being responsible for issuing their player with a work permit online, noting the certificate number and keeping all the relevant paperwork.

Carter added that measures will be in place to monitor abuse of the system which could mean clubs being fined up to £5,000.

He added that South Africans would not need a work permit even if they were paid - as long as they had a Dutch or a German passport.

However, he stated that reasons for a work permit not being issued included having a criminal record in their home country, having a false passport or having overstayed on a work permit before in the United Kingdom, Australia or the United States.

Pearson said: "Because the work-permit situation is still a work in progress, I am keen for Graham Reid (the Bradford League chairman) to try and get the internationally established' phrase downgraded through the League Cricket Conference.

"I have also got assurances about this from Bradford League treasurer David Young."

Pearson added: "Then there is the question of overseas players passing an English test from 2010 onwards.

"Our professional Safraz Ahmed has not had a good education in Pakistan and hopefully the test, which we are told could be up to GCSE standard, will also be reduced in difficulty."

Reid requested that clubs should not bombard the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) with queries over work permits because things are not confirmed.

"Clubs should wait until there are some definitive answers and regulations have been codified," he said.

Carter emphasised that the working holidaymaker (Tier Five), into which the Aire-Wharfe League's overseas players fall, would not need a work permit.

However, they would do from their weekday employers if they had a job - for example an Indian doctor working at a hospital - and played cricket at weekends as an amateur.