The Hundred: Glenn Maxwell becomes latest Australian to withdraw from tournament

Several fans worldwide are waiting for the inaugural edition of The Hundred tournament, which will get underway next month in England. It’s a unique cricket competition announced by the England Cricket Board (ECB) where every team will get 100 balls per innings to put runs on the board. Intrigued by the entirely new format, many T20 stars from across the globe gave their names in the draft and subsequently bagged contracts from different franchises.

However, owing to travel restrictions and quarantine protocols, many big names have withdrawn their names from The Hundred. Australian dasher Glenn Maxwell is the latest player to walk out of the competition. The Aussie all-rounder was supposed to play for London Spirit, one of the eight teams in the competition. However, Shane Warne, head coach of the franchise, confirmed Maxwell’s withdrawal and also announced Josh Inglish as a replacement.

Inglis, who’s currently representing Leicestershire in the T20 Blast 2021, has been in impressive form lately and the Spirits would want him to shine in The Hundred as well. “Unfortunately Glenn Maxwell has pulled out of The Hundred. We were really excited to get him in the draft. We know he’s a match-winner and we were excited to have him. We’ve now replaced him with Josh Inglis from Western Australia, so we are lucky to have him,” Warne said on Fox Cricket’s Road To The Ashes podcast.

 Glenn Maxwell is not the first Australian to pull out of The Hundred

Before Maxwell, David Warner and Marcus Stoinis were the other Australians to have pulled out of The Hundred. With the tournament being still being a month away, it won’t be a surprise if some more players pull out their names. Notably, the tournament gets underway on July 22 at the Kennington Oval in London.

Meanwhile, Maxwell, alongside seven other players, had also pulled out from Australia’s upcoming tour of the West Indies and Bangladesh. All the withdrawn players participated in the now-postponed Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. Hence, it is understood that they need some more resting time after nearly a month of quarantine and players.

Notably, IPL 2021 will resume on September 19 in UAE and it would be interesting to see how many Australians would participate in the marquee event. Notably, the tournament will be followed by the ICC T20 World Cup in India. Hence, many players are expected to walk out of the remaining season to stay fit for the World Cup.