A group of nearly 50 leading England players has been considering boycotting the upcoming 2025 season of ‘The Hundred’ against the new policy of the ECB on playing in the overseas franchise leagues around the world. The move came after the England Cricket Board announced a change in the policy regarding the ‘no-objection certificates (NOC) that the players need to have from their home board to play in the overseas tournament.
The headline changes were that the board would not issue the NOC for the events that will clash with the English summer unless the players are on a white-ball-only deal with the county. This means that they won’t be able to feature in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), which has moved a slot down in April and May and overlaps with the Indian Premier League (IPL), which has been exempted from the policy.
In addition, the England players will not be able to get the NOCs for the event that will clash with the Vitality Blast, whose group games in two blocks between May and July before the knockouts take place in September, while the Hundred is played in August.
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That means, next year, the players from the ‘Three Lions’ will not get the nod to be part of the Major League Cricket, Canada’s Global T20 League, and the Lanka Premier League along with the Caribbean Premier League. The list of the tournaments is only going to grow with time.
Top-class England players could boycott Hundred 2025- Reports
This has led the players to have a few meetings with the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) this week through the agents. The PCA, on the back of the meetings, is taking legal advice from a KC over whether this is a trade before issuing a formal response.
The England Cricket Board is set to announce a rise in the top bracket of pay for the men’s Hundred next year, and it’s expected to be around £175,000 for the long event, which could turn the player’s trade.
“In principle, this is a really strong stance that shows the strength of feeling. The question is if some break ranks, because money talks, and there could be a domino effect.” The report on Telegraph has informed.
It has also led to some of the big-name county players, considering retiring from the red-ball action and making negotiations with their county contracts if they earn a lucrative deal in Pakistan.
The England players and their agents have enjoyed a fruitful few years in the new competition. Many players of the country have already featured in various leagues, including the one in Abu Dhabi, Guyana, and Nepal, since the end of the season, with the Big Bash League (BBL) in Australia starting next weekend.
Few players have felt that the game could be converting towards the football policy, while some have asked why the ECB has the right to vote over the players.
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Jonny Bairstow would have been allowed to go to the IPL, but having not gotten a deal for any of the ten franchises, he can’t fly to Pakistan for the event. That’s because he is still a red-ball player on the ECB contract. Jason Roy was not picked up in the Hundred draft before being called up as a replacement.
The likes of England pacers Luke Wood and Saqib Mahmood have white-ball deals with Lancashire with a pays-as-you-pay policy to play in the championship. They are not banned from the PSL. There is also disappointment about the details of contracts, such as the money where the players have to pay back 12.5% of their salary to their countries to appear in the Hundred.