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At least two other English players in Will Smeed and David Willey have also pulled out. Typically, players are registered for franchise leagues by agents acting on their behalf, so it is possible that the players were not aware they had been signed up for the L draft until they saw the backlash, which has included criticism from the Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi. Key told the BBC’s Test Match Special podcast: “Legally, it’s hard to stop players from going over and playing in these competitions.
It becomes a moral judgement, and players have to be prepared to take right moral stance. Personally – and it’s easy for me to say – I wouldn’t go and play in it, but it’s down, really, for the player to make that decision. He added: “I don’t agree with the way that women have been treated out in Afghanistan, and the way that things hpen in that country is not something that I agree with, so it’s not something that I would go and do.” Dawid Malan, who is among the England players still registered for the draft, defended his potential involvement by deferring to the ECB and the ICC.
“As players we take our guidance from the ICC and the boards,” he told the Test Match Special podcast. Malan added: “I have a daughter, I want her to play sport, I want her to get into playing sport and enjoying it, so I fully understand that argument. But at the end of the day, I’m a cricketer.
I need to be able to pay my rent and I need to be able to earn a living while I can, so as long as it’s been proved by the boards, I am hpy to go.” revealed last week that there remain doubts as to whether the L will go ahead as planned in any case, with only three out of five franchises sold and one source describing the league’s prospects as “touch and go”. It is due to begin in the UAE on December 27. Ollie Pope pulls during his unbeaten fifty, Surrey vs Middlesex, Men’s T20 Blast, Kia Oval, June 3, 2026 Ollie Pope had put himself forward for the L • for Surrey CCC England players to get NOCs for Afghanistan Premier League T20 ECB hints at NOC u-turn even as L doubts emerge Matt Roller is a senior correspondent at .
