Ashish Ranjan
On Thursday, June 15, the International Cricket Council (ICC) planned to introduce a number of measures to safeguard international cricket, including a restriction on the number of overseas players in T20 leagues. According to recent developments, it is extremely unlikely that the rule will be implemented immediately by the T20 leagues.
The decision to limit overseas players was made after the UAE’s International League T20 (ILT20) and the United States’ Major League Cricket (MLC) permitted up to nine and six foreign stars, respectively, in their respective lineups. The preponderance of foreign players in the aforementioned divisions has raised concerns and prompted the ICC working group to devise a new set of regulations to protect international cricket.
According to a report by Cricbuzz, any decision made regarding overseas participants at the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Annual Conference in Durban in July is unlikely to impact the MLC and the upcoming edition of the ILT20.
In addition, both divisions have received approval from the supreme cricket council for their long-term operations. Given that approvals have already been granted, revoking assent could result in legal complications, which the ICC wishes to avoid.
Certain members of the ICC working group have proposed limiting the number of international/full-member players to four per team. In addition, any league that does not adhere to ICC regulations will be deemed unsanctioned.
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This essentially means that any athlete participating in these leagues will be ineligible for all existing franchises and international competitions. This will likely prevent players from receiving lucrative offers from IPL and other ICC-approved competitions.
Johnny Graves of the Cricket West Indies (CWI), Mubashir Usmani of the Emirates Cricket Board, Warren Deutrom of Cricket Ireland, Nicky Hockley of Cricket Australia (CA), and Arun Singh Dhumal of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will be in attendance at the meeting in Durban to discuss the issue. In any event, the MLC and ILT20 will retain their current contingents of foreign players, and any rule changes will be implemented in the future.
