Reports: Immediate cap of four overseas players in T20 leagues improbable

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday, June 15, planned to introduce a number of measures to protect international cricket which included limiting the number of overseas players in the T20 leagues. However, as per the latest developments, it is highly unlikely that the rule will be implemented by the T20 leagues with immediate effect.

The decision of limiting overseas players comes after UAE’s International League T20 (ILT20) and USA’s Major League Cricket (MLC) allow as many as nine and six foreign stars in the setup. The overwhelming presence of overseas players in the aforementioned leagues has raised concerns and has led to the ICC working group coming up with a set of new rules to safeguard international cricket.

However, as per a report by Cricbuzz, any decision made regarding the overseas players during the Annual Conference of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Durban in July is unlikely to affect the MLC and the forthcoming edition of the ILT20.

In addition to this, both leagues have received the green signal for their long-term operations from the apex cricket council. Considering that the approvals have been granted, revoking consent could lead to legal complications, something the ICC would like to avoid. 

Certain members of the ICC working group have recommended the number of international/full-member players in the playing team to four. Furthermore, any league not following the ICC guidelines will be termed as an unsanctioned league.

This essentially means that any player taking part in these leagues will be barred from the entire existing franchise and the international setup. With this, the players could likely miss out on lucrative offers from IPL and other sanctioned leagues by the ICC. 

The matter will be discussed as Johnny Graves from the CWI, Mubashir Usmani from the Emirates Cricket Board, Warren Deutrom from Cricket Ireland, Nicky Hockley from Cricket Australia (CA), and Arun Singh Dhumal from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will grace the meeting in Durban. In any case, the MLC and the ILT20 will continue to have their existing set of foreign players and any change in the rules will be seen in the future.