Duanne Olivier has been flying of late. In his last five Tests the South African fast bowler has taken 31 wickets at 17 runs apiece, including 11 against Pakistan at Pretoria during December. He has just broken into the top 20 of the Test rankings and made his one-day international debut at the start of a year that brings with it the carrot of a World Cup in England.

But on Tuesday morning it was announced that Olivier, just 26, was giving up an international career – or a least placing it in cold storage for a good while – to sign a three-year deal at Yorkshire via the Kolpak ruling. The club are awaiting final sign-off on the registration that allows an overseas player to play as a local in county cricket provided their country of origin has a free trade agreement with the EU and they qualify for a work permit.

When you can get 18 rand to the pound (and he is said to be earning up to £150,000 per season at Yorkshire), financial security has won out. His take-home pay as a centrally contracted South Africa player would be roughly a third of his new salary during this time but with no guarantees over selection – albeit a two-year counter-offer was on the table – and with uncertainty over the Kolpak route post-Brexit, the lure was too strong.

“My decision might be difficult for some to understand but being a professional cricket player is a short-lived career and in order for me to make the most of all my opportunities, I had to consider all my options,” Olivier said in a statement on Instagram.

Yorkshire, having lost Jack Brooks to Somerset and Liam Plunkett to Surrey over the winter, have augmented a bowling attack that was starting to thin out a touch and Martyn Moxon, the club’s director of cricket, is already talking about the initial three-year deal simply being the start of a long and fruitful time at Headingley.

Olivier is not the first overseas-born cricketer to turn his back on international cricket and opt for the security of county cricket. Last summer there were 14 players registered via the Kolpak ruling and with a raft of dual nationals who hold either British or EU passports also, it is estimated about 15% of county cricketers overall were not qualified for England.

He had been pondering this switch for a while, too. Last summer Olivier played as an overseas cricketer at Derbyshire and after 31 wickets in seven first-class matches, rival counties starting making overtures. At the time he had gone a year without an international cap and would have been mindful of South Africa’s quota system, which requires the national team to average six non-white players per game over the course of a year, of whom two must be black.

But what is sticking in the craw of South African cricket and swathes of supporters around the world – not least a fair few from Yorkshire, judging by the response to their announcement on social media – is that since harbouring such thoughts last year, Olivier had broken into the Proteas Test team in a way that suggested he might prevail.

Just ask Pakistan’s batsman, who were unable to cope with his hostility during a 3-0 series defeat in which he took 24 wickets. With the recently injury-plagued Dale Steyn now 34 and Vernon Philander just a year younger, many had tipped Olivier, Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi to form South Africa’s seam attack long-term.

Kolpak players can return to international cricket at the end of their county contracts but Cricket South Africa’s chief executive, Thabang Moroe, responded to the news in a way that suggests this may not be an option.

He said: “If one looks at the bigger picture this is not good news for the global game either that a player who has just broken into the top 20 in the ICC Test-match bowling rankings for the first time should opt, effectively, to bring down the curtain on his international career in favour of playing only in domestic leagues.”

Olivier has clearly not taken the decision lightly and will have been braced for criticism. But his conclusion speaks more about the lopsided nature of cricket’s global financial landscape rather than one man’s career choice. As Ice-T once opined: “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”