Mark Butcher feels ECB could have leveraged BCCI to allow Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni in the Hundred League
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Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni
Former England opener Mark Butcher believes the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) should have agreed to the BCCI’s proposal for a change in the schedule for the upcoming five-match Test series in an attempt to provide a space for the remainder of the IPL 2021.
BCCI had initiated an informal plea to reschedule the five-match Test series between India and England, which begins on 4th August, by a week to fit the remaining 31 IPL 2021 games, but ECB’s managing director of cricket Ashley Giles has indicated that England will not change the schedule.
Butcher went on to say that in return, the ECB could have persuaded the BCCI to let players like MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli participate in the Hundred’s inaugural season, which would have provided it a significant push.
Mark Butcher rues missed opportunity
“Well, listen. I take a deep breath here … as does the nation. I think it’s a massive missed opportunity. The ECB is absolutely desperate to make this (Hundred) work. They have to be, they have bet the house on The Hundred, but at every turn, it seems a greater power doesn’t want it to happen. And so for me, this was the opportunity where you’ll say ‘Okay, we’ll bite the bullet… We would do this for the BCCI on the proviso that we get Kohli, Dhoni, whoever we like, signed up for three years to play in The Hundred, starting 2022,” said Mark Butcher as quoted by Sportstar.
According to Butcher, the ECB missed a big opportunity. The addition of the Indian marquee players could have been a huge advantage in the Hundred League. He feels the ECB were in a wonderful position to capitalize on the position they were in but have missed an opportunity now.
“And you have leverage for the first time ever: you have something that they need, that they want. Obviously, the BCCI will lose a lot of money if they don’t get the IPL in the window. You also have the extraordinary spectacle of the IPL being finished at the behest or because of English cricket. And you use that lever in order to get something you desperately need. So I think there’s an opportunity missed,” added Mark Butcher.
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Mohamed Azhar
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