Club versus country has always been a debate we thought pertinent to football and then, over the last few years, to rugby players plying their trade in Europe - but not cricket.
It was never the sport where the ultimate challenge - and riches - has always been at the highest level, but how things have changed.
The West Indies had the issue first, as the advent of T20 leagues around the world meant that their very best players could stick two gold-ringed fingers at the establishment and become hired guns around the world.
The rest of the global cricket community put it down to historical factionalism, and a generation of players flush with personality and pulling power.
Their Test cricket has dipped beyond recognition, and even their 50-over side is a pale shadow of what it could and should be.
The priorities have shifted and there is no sign of that changing any time soon.
Closer to home, the South African game is still recovering from the shock of a pair of their own players in their prime choosing county over country.
As with the West Indies, losing Kyle Abbott and Rilee Rossouw in their prime is not just a loss for South African cricket.
It is not just our problem. It is an international cricket problem because these premature exits from the loftiest stage take something away from the overall product.
Watching a Windies Test outfit without the likes of Dwayne Bravo, Marlon Samuels and Chris Gayle is a bit like having a hamburger without the patty.
Sure, it is still a meal of sorts, but it is underwhelming because you know that the full version would be so much more satisfying.
Happily, there is still considerable meat on the South African cricket bone, and there will be a point when the Kolpak player drain actually stops dripping.
The British employment law changes will come into play, and doors will close for most who haven’t crossed the pond by then.
But South African cricket, as with other boards around the world, needs to stay ahead of the curve from now on.
There are T20 leagues sprouting all over the world and the typical Proteas superstar is a prize catch for these tournaments to display, and the lopsided exchange rate only makes these options ever more intriguing with advancing years.
The key lesson from the Abbott/Rossouw episode is that patriotism is no longer the sole motivating factor.
Pounds and dollars are becoming pragmatic players, especially when the likes of the increasingly productive Mr W van Wyk - the playmaker in most of the Kolpak deals out of South Africa - are at play.
It’s clear that Van Wyk has preyed - or at least played - on the insecurities of being a South African professional sportsman, and painted life in the UK as ever more lusher than the rainbow landscape.
In the form they have been in, there is no way Abbott and Rossouw wouldn’t have been central figures in the Champions Trophy, for starters, and subsequent IPL franchise magnets the season after.
Their respective sets of skills and experience would benefit most teams. It is lamentable that they won’t be there, because those skills should be getting tested at the sharpest level, instead of offering awkward observations about a team they should be a key part of next summer in England.
Their departure, untimely as it was, is a timely lesson to South African cricket.
Once the Kolpak storm is over, the next challenge will be the T20 hired gun tsunami, with a couple of $100000 (about R1.352-million) deals throughout the year on offer to those who are happy to choose club comfort over country.
There is a growing band of early retirees, which will hurt the international game. It's up to world cricket to protect its vulnerable, ultimate product.