[Tintin]

Since 1947, Pakistan has definitely sent more players than India. While, except three or four, Indians usually spent < 5 years, many Pakistanis had long careers in county cricket

but after gaining test status(and independence, i must stress), how many from the test side has played in the circuit.

Not a complete list :

MAK Pataudi (Sussex)
FM Engineer (Lancashire)
BS Bedi (Northamptonshire)
Kapil Dev (Northamptonshire, Worcestershire)
SM Gavaskar (Somerset)
DR Doshi ( Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire)
S Venkatraghavan (Derbyshire)
RJ Shastri (Glamorgan)
M Azharuddin (Derbyshire)
J Srinath (Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Durham)
AR Kumble (Northamptonshire, Leicestershire)
SR Tendulkar (Yorkshire)
SC Ganguly (Lancashire)
RS Dravid (Kent and Scotland)
M Prabhakar (Durham)
Yuvraj Singh (Yorkshire)
V Sehwag (Leicestershire)
D Mongia (Lancashire)
M Kaif (Derbyshire)
S Sriram (Scotland)
Zaheer Khan (Surrey)


Non-international cricketers
Uday Joshi (Sussex)
Nayan Doshi (Surrey, Dilip Doshi's son)

There are some more who played for the universities.

There are so many Pakistanis that I won't even attempt to name them. The first should be Abdul Hafeez Kardar who represented Warwickshire from 1948. Link

Billy Ibadulla played for Warwickshire, Tasmania and Otago and settled in New Zealand
Link

When did the Asian countries first send a player to the English county championship?

The first match in India that has first class status was played in 1892, but the first Indian to play first class cricket did so in 1880. It was someone named Aloysius Pereira who went to study medicine in Cambridge and appeared in one match for the University. Pereira


The first Indian to play county cricket is Ranjitsinhji, or if you don't consider him an Indian cricketer,
Mehellashah Pavri (1895)

The first (future) Indian Test cricketer to play was Nazir Ali for Sussex in 1927. He had been sent to England to study electrical engineering by his sponsor (either Maharaja of Patiala or Holkar) Nazir Ali

Among the others an interesting case is that of Ahsan ul Haq. He went to study law and played for Middlesexin 1902. But just he was getting warmed up we was called back to Bombay. He played no cricket for 20 years. At the age of 45, he was invited to captain Muslims in the Lahore Tournament of 1924. It was his first match in India. He arrived late on the second day, so went in at No.11 and scored a hundred in 40 minutes, which is still the fastest hundred by anyone outside England.

Ahsan ul Haq Match

how long did it take after getting test status, for them to send a player to the county circuit.

It was only from 1968 that the county sides were allowed to pick professionals from overseas (without qualifying by residence). So comparing it won't be correct.

Prior to the 1990s, the counties used to go for the top players in the world, but the current trend is to get decent players who come fairly cheap. Because of round the year international cricket, most of the best players won't be available anyway.



Edited on, February 27, 2005, 5:59 PM GMT, by Tintin.