England and Wales Cricket Board’s ambitious project may suffer another blow. The inaugural edition of the tournament could be missing many top draw overseas signings due to the packed schedule of several teams, including West Indies and Australia.
West Indies, Pakistan and Australia have their limited overs series lined up in the Caribbean in July-August. The availability of players from these teams for the men’s tournament could be in question with the complications regarding International travel due to covid restrictions.
Two Australia Women’s players, Rachael Haynes and Jess Jonassen, have already withdrawn from the women’s tournament due to quarantine requirements, and more Aussie players are likely to follow suit. With a quarantine period of two weeks in place and a low salary for women players, with the maximum pay being £15,000 – many players from Australia are still in two minds about travelling.
Cricket West Indies announced its action-packed home summer last week, where their T20I series against Australia overlaps with the start of the Hundred. As a result, there are question marks over the availability of seven of the nine Aussie players contracted to feature in the men’s competition. Chris Lynn and Nathan Coulter-Nile were the only players who weren’t named in Australia’s 23-man squad.
The marquee names from Australia include David Warner and Glenn Maxwell, having signed for Southern Brave and London Spirit, respectively. While they could still play the majority of the tournament, Cricket Australia are in talks with Bangladesh Cricket Board for a possible tour, which could further clash with the league.
West Indies superstars Kieron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine are under contract for the men’s competition of the Hundred. Pollard and Pooran are an integral part of West Indies’ T20 set-up, while Russell and Narine are likely to make comebacks ahead of the T20 World Cup. Their series against Pakistan is scheduled to begin on July 27, three days after the conclusion of the Australia series. The final match of the Pakistan series is slated for August 3 in Guyana, which is on the UK’s travel red list and adds further complications.
Pakistan also have two Tests lined up against West Indies on August 12 and August 20, ruling Shaheen Shah Afridi out of his commitment with Birmingham Phoenix. Manchester Original’s Shadab Khan could also miss the competition if he’s picked for the Test series.
The ECB remain confident of some of the top overseas cricketers featuring in the league but are realistic about the possible withdrawals.
“The realities of Covid mean there remain practicalities that are difficult for some overseas players to overcome,”
a spokesperson said.
For the replacements, there is a massive pool of nearly 250 overseas players registered. The likes of Dan Christian, Glenn Phillips, Lockie Ferguson and Carlos Brathwaite, will already be in the UK for the T20 Blast and could be great replacement options for some part of the tournament or full season.
The ECB are hoping that England’s centrally contracted players will be available for the start of the tournament before the Test series against India gets underway, and possibly at the back end of the tournament for the playoffs. Players with white-ball contracts will be available throughout the Hundred.
“We’ve got a lot of cricket coming up so it’s a difficult juggling act but I know the players are also looking forward to that tournament and would love to be involved at some stage if they can,”
Ashley Giles, the managing director of England men’s cricket, said last week.
The ECB’s new 100-ball tournament’s inaugural edition was postponed last year due to Covid-19 and is now set to begin on July 21.
