Reports | BCCI pondering allowing ‘certain category of Indian cricketers’ to participate in The Hundred

04/22/2021

The BCCI are reportedly open to the idea of allowing a certain category of Indian cricketers to participate in The Hundred from 2022, and are believed to hold talks with the ECB for the same. The inaugural edition of The Hundred, however, will not feature any Indian Men’s cricketers.

The past 18 months has seen the relationship between the BCCI and the ECB grow thicker and recently, ‘The Telegraph’ reported that the two boards are extremely keen to work together in the months and years to come. The Telegraph, even before Warwickshire roped in Hanuma Vihari, had reported that more Indian cricketers will follow Shreyas Iyer’s path and play in the English domestic season this year and had also revealed that ECB could offer IPL franchises stakes in ‘The Hundred’ teams to potentially get the Indian board to allow its players to partake in the competition.

It is not clear how much the talks have progressed, but fresh reports have emerged stating that the BCCI are pondering allowing a ‘certain category of Indian cricketers’ to participate in The Hundred from the 2022 edition of the competition. The BCCI, as things stand, do not allow active Indian players to participate in franchise competitions across the globe to preserve IPL’s exclusivity, but a TOI report has claimed that the Indian board is open to the idea of sending some of the country’s younger cricketers - capped and uncapped - to partake in The Hundred.

“BCCI may allow a certain category of Indian cricketers to participate in The Hundred,” BCCI sources were quoted as saying by TOI.

A primary reason why BCCI are mulling breaking this ‘exclusivity’ is believed to be the expansion of the IPL from 8 teams to 10. Expansion of the IPL will see potentially the month of March, too, be eaten up, and thus to convince boards - ECB, in this case - to not schedule tours during this window, the BCCI are believed to be mulling the India of sending Indian players to overseas leagues.

“A bigger window for the IPL in future will be BCCI’s biggest takeaway from this,” TOI quoted industry executives as saying.

The inaugural edition of The Hundred is slated to begin on July 21.