{"id":3249,"date":"2026-02-21T12:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=3249"},"modified":"2026-02-21T12:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:15:15","slug":"128641441-cms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=3249","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Great cricket nation&#8217;: England captain says excluding Pakistan players from The Hundred would be a &#8216;shame&#8217; | Cricket News &#8211; The Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"MwN2O\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"T22zO\">\n<section class=\"D3Wk1  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  VtlfQ\" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"D3Wk1\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"zPaFh\">\n<div class=\"wJnIp\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-128641761,imgsize-62938,width-400,resizemode-4\/qaz-56.jpg\" alt=\"'Great cricket nation': England captain says excluding Pakistan players from The Hundred would be a 'shame'\" title=\"Harry Brook (l) and Pakistan's captain Salman Ali Agha celebrates with teammates in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"cj2hz img_cptn\"><span title=\"Harry Brook (l) and Pakistan's captain Salman Ali Agha celebrates with teammates in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP)\">Harry Brook (l) and Pakistan&#8217;s captain Salman Ali Agha celebrates with teammates in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>England white-ball captain <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/harry-brook\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Harry Brook<\/a> said it would be &#8220;a shame&#8221; if players from Pakistan are not picked in The Hundred, amid reports that some teams with Indian ownership may avoid signing them.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"4\"\/>A BBC report has suggested that Indian-owned franchises \u2014 Manchester Super Giants, MI London, Southern Brave and Sunrisers Leeds \u2014 could refrain from selecting Pakistan players at the auction because of concerns about political backlash in India amid tensions between the two countries.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"6\"\/> <span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"8\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"lOvcW vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"k7lcu\">\n<p>Why Pakistan don&#8217;t trust Babar Azam any more | T20 World Cup 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> <span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"11\"\/>&#8220;Our main focus now is what&#8217;s coming up in the T20 World Cup. It&#8217;s not really any of our business, to be honest,&#8221; Brook, who has been signed by Sunrisers Leeds, said before England&#8217;s Super 8 match against Sri Lanka.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"15\"\/>&#8220;But what I would say is Pakistan have been a great cricket nation for many years. I think there&#8217;s about 50, 60 players in the auction, and it would be a shame to not see some of them in there.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"17\"\/>A total of 67 male and female cricketers from Pakistan, including most of the men\u2019s T20 World Cup squad, have registered for The Hundred auction, which will be held in London.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"19\"\/>Several Pakistan players \u2014 Mohammad Amir, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan and Haris Rauf \u2014 have previously played in The Hundred.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"22\"\/>Pakistan players have not been part of the Indian Premier League (<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/cricket\/ipl\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">IPL<\/a>) since 2009, following diplomatic tensions after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Four of the eight The Hundred franchises \u2014 Manchester Super Giants, MI London, Southern Brave and Sunrisers Leeds \u2014 are now partly owned by companies that control IPL teams.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"26\"\/>Former England captain Michael Vaughan said on Friday that the England and Wales Cricket Board &#8220;need to act fast&#8221; because excluding players based on nationality &#8220;should not be allowed to happen&#8221;.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"29\"\/>Pakistan players have also not featured in SA20, which began in 2023, with all six teams owned by IPL franchise groups \u2014 including the four now involved in The Hundred.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"31\"\/>In the ILT20 in the United Arab Emirates, franchises linked to the owners of MI London and Southern Brave have not signed a Pakistan player across four seasons, though they have recruited players from 15 other countries. By contrast, Desert Vipers, which is American-owned, has signed eight Pakistan players over the same period.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"34\"\/>&#8220;There&#8217;s some amazing cricketers and, yeah, and they bring some great crowds as well. So it would be a shame to not see some of the Pakistan players in there and make the tournament and competition even better,&#8221; Brook added.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"36\"\/>The next season of The Hundred will run from July 21 to August 16, while the player auctions are scheduled for March 11 and 12.<\/div>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/cricket\/icc-mens-t20-world-cup\/great-cricket-nation-england-captain-says-excluding-pakistan-players-from-the-hundred-would-be-a-shame\/articleshow\/128641441.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harry Brook (l) and Pakistan&#8217;s captain Salman Ali Agha celebrates with teammates in Colombo, Sri&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9176,9177,5293,4938,1842,9174,1125,9175],"class_list":["post-3249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cricket-auction","tag-england-and-wales-cricket-board","tag-england-cricket","tag-harry-brook","tag-ipl","tag-pakistan-cricketers","tag-t20-world-cup","tag-the-hundred"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}