Influx of English players in PSL a reminder of ECB's decision to abandon Pakistan tour: report

• ECB continues to face criticism over cancellation of Pakistan tour in October 2021.
• ECB’s decision to abandon Pakistan tour was incomprehensible, reports cricket website.
• A total of 48 international players around the world are a part of PSL7.

The English Cricket Board (ECB) is still under criticism for calling off Pakistan’s tour in October 2021 citing security reasons as more than two dozen English players have joined the Pakistan Super League's (PSL) seventh edition just after three months.

According to a cricket website, the inclusion of English players in the league proved that players had no issue in going to Pakistan. However, ECB’s decision to abandon Pakistan’s tour was "incomprehensible".

The seventh edition of PSL 2022 kicked off on Thursday as the Multan Sultans registered their first victory against Karachi Kings.

A total of 48 international players around the world have joined PSL7, out of whom 24 belong to England.

Interestingly, eight out of the 24 English players have yet to join the league as they are a part of the ongoing England and West Indies series and will come to Pakistan after the series is completed.

This includes Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mehmood, James Vince, Jason Roy, Reece Topley, Phil Salts and Hary Brooks.

Besides this, at least eight young English players, who have joined the league believed that they could be a part of England’s national cricket team after showing a good performance in PSL as they have examples of Phil Salts and David Milan, who have shown knockout performances in PSL’s previous editions and joined the English team.

Six of England’s players are part of Quetta Gladiators, while five have joined the Peshawar Zalmis and the Multan Sultans have one player from England.

The Karachi Kings also have six players from England, while Islamabad United and Lahore Qalandars have two and four English players, respectively.

According to a cricket website, the presence of 24 English players in Pakistan to play PSL contradicts ECB’s decision of abandoning Pakistan’s tour due to security reasons and this cannot be ignored easily.

It is worth mentioning here that 25 out of 48 international players, who are a part of PSL 7 have also played for their countryside for the past year.

Moreover, nearly 10 international players in PSL could debut in their national cricket team while many have aimed to come back for their countryside after performing in PSL.

The presence of international cricketers, especially two-dozen English players in Pakistan, has once again turned down the security concerns of ECB and other cricket boards, however, international cricket boards need to revisit their policies in this regard.

Last year, on September 20, the ECB had canceled its tour to Pakistan days after New Zealand had pulled its team out at the last minute ahead of its series due to "security" concerns.