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TWO leading SA cricketers - former international pace bowler Roger Telemachus and Gauteng batsman Geoffrey Toyana - were recently kicked out of England for not having work permits to take up club contracts there.

Toyana suffered worst at the hands of British officialdom. He was subjected to three hours of interrogation and held in a detention cell near Heathrow Airport for 11 hours before being sent home.

The SA team have been welcomed with open arms in England as World Cup favourites, but Cape-based Telemachus and Soweto's Toyana found English hospitality not quite as inviting.

Toyana, 25, who captained an SA Invitation side against Mike Atherton's England team in Soweto on his first class debut in 1995, arrived at Heathrow Airport on April 20 en route to Devon, where he was set to play club cricket for Tiverton, but was refused entry for not having a work permit. ``I was told [by the club] I wouldn't need a work permit,'' he said, adding that he had played for Tiverton in 1998 without one. He also spent six months as a member of the groundstaff at Lord's, in 1996, when he was in possession of a work permit.

Toyana was questioned for three hours and referred customs officials to the club chairman, who was at the airport to pick him up and ``knew everything about the whole situation''. ``They came back and told me I had been refused entry to England.'' He was taken to a detention centre ``about 20 minutes from the airport'', where he was held with others for 11 hours, before being picked up and escorted by officials onto a plane back to South Africa.

``The club chairman phoned me the next day to apologise and said he had sorted everything out. He is paying for my flight back,'' said Toyana, who will return to England on Thursday, this time with a work permit.

Telemachus was due to play for Guildford in the Surrey Premier League, but had to return home as the processing of his work permit was not complete.He was granted a 10-day ``extension of stay'' and played a game for the club as an amateur before returning home earlier this month. Like Toyana, he is expected to return to England once the problem has been cleared up.

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