A total of 63 Pakistani players, including captain Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Afridi, Saim Ayub and Usman Tariq, have registered for The Hundred players’ auction, scheduled to be held in London next month. In total, 711 players from across the globe have registered for the draft-style event, barring India.

The recent development has come just a while after the reports of the uncertainty over whether new Indian investors will effect an IPL-style 'shadow ban' on Pakistani players. Both domestic and contracted international cricketers from Pakistan will be eager to test their market value. Yet, uncertainty clouds their prospects.

Out of the 8 franchises in The Hundred, the likes of London Spirit (owned by US-based tech investors), MI Oval (Reliance Industries), Manchester SuperGiants (RPSG Group), Southern Brave (GMR Group), SunRisers Leeds (Sun TV) and Welsh Fire (US-based Sanjay Govil) have Indian connections. Notably, no Pakistani international cricketer has been a part of the IPL since the tournament's inaugural edition in 2008, and only a handful of players have appeared for foreign franchises run by IPL ownership groups since their global expansion.

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Turning down the reports, Richard Gould, the ECB's chief executive, mentioned last year that the involvement of Pakistani players in the Hundred would be unaffected by the league's privatisation. The ECB say that they have not been shown the messages in question and pushed back against the story, but Michael Vaughan, the former England captain, urged the board to react to the issue more proactively.

"The ECB need to act fast on this," Vaughan wrote on X. "They own the league, and this should not be allowed to happen. The most inclusive sport in the country is not one that allows this to happen."

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It is to be noted that just nine Pakistani players have featured in the first five seasons of the Hundred. Teams run by Capitals co-owners and Southern Brave owners GMR Group have previously signed Pakistani players, including Imad Wasim, Zaman Khan (both Seattle Orcas) and Shan Masood (Hampshire). The other three franchises have not previously signed active Pakistan internationals for any of their teams.

Geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan escalated last year, and the recent group-stage match between the two teams at the T20 World Cup was nearly cancelled after the Pakistani government threatened to boycott the fixture as a gesture of solidarity following Bangladesh's exclusion from the competition.

An ECB spokesperson said: "The Hundred welcomes men's and women's players from all over the world, and we would expect the eight teams to reflect that.

"Almost 1,000 cricketers from 18 nations have registered for The Hundred auction, with representation on the longlist of over 50 players respectively from Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan and West Indies."


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