News: ECB chairman Richard Thompson has indicated the board will “think very carefully” before granting No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) to English players for the proposed Afghanistan Premier League T20 (APL), amid ongoing uncertainties about the league’s viability.
Cricinfo recently disclosed that the ECB intended to provide NOCs for the APL despite refusing to engage Afghanistan in bilateral series due to the Taliban’s stance on women’s rights. Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, known for her advocacy against England’s participation in events involving Afghanistan, urged players to consider the implications of joining the league.
Thompson moderated the ECB’s earlier position, acknowledging legal considerations about players’ right to work. “Our laws are very clear over restraint of trade,” he said, referring to the ECB’s general NOC policy. “You can’t restrain somebody from working somewhere unless you’ve got good reason.” On the APL specifically, he commented, “That’s a whole other issue, and that hasn’t come to us yet. But when it does, we will have to consider that very carefully.”
Several English players have enrolled for the upcoming APL draft, including Will Smeed, James Rew, Asa Tribe, and Dawid Malan. The draft is set for October 24, with the league scheduled from December 27 to January 16. However, Cricinfo reports that logistical challenges persist, with only three of five franchise owners announced and the search for remaining buyers progressing slower than expected.
An unnamed source characterised the league’s future as “touch and go,” attributing delays to difficulties in securing franchise owners.
Former England cricketer Mark Butcher called for the ECB to offer players clearer guidance, criticising the ICC for not adhering to its own standards regarding Afghanistan’s Full Member status. “The thing that always bothers me most about any conversation around Afghanistan cricket… is that as Full Members, they breach the ICC’s own criteria for qualification for that status, simply by not having a women’s team,” Butcher told Wisden Cricket Weekly. He further critiqued the potential mixed messaging to players: “You either don’t want them to go or you’re happy for them to go… I’d tend to put it on the game at large, or at least the ruling parties who operate at a double standard.”
As England weighs up its position, the cricketing world watches closely, eager for clarity on this complex issue.
