England star James Vince made a serious allegation on Tuesday that the England Cricket Board (ECB) favours the Indian Premier League (IPL) over the Pakistan Super League (PSL). The comment came a week after Vince announced his retirement from first-class cricket in a bid to make himself available for the upcoming PSL season.
The 33-year-old batter stepped down from captaincy role for Hampshire last week and will no longer play in County Championship this year. He took the decision after unexplained attacks on his home in Hampshire last year, which forced him to relocate to Dubai. However, the step was necessary for him to get No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) from the ECB to play in PSL after the board made major changes to its policies last November.
While ECB's chief executive Richard Gould maintained that the steps were taken to protect English cricket, Vince fears that "more and more" players will follow suit.
"When they first mentioned it, a WhatsApp group of players was created and there was a lot of discussion," Vince tells ESPNcricinfo from Dubai. "The initial feeling was that it was going to drive people away from red-ball cricket. It felt like it was going to limit opportunities. Players were frustrated by it… There were a few things in there that [we] didn't really understand."
ECB favoruing IPL over PSL?
With 2025 being the year of the Champions Trophy, the PSL was shifted to the April-May window, resulting in it clashing with the IPL and the county season. Vince, who was retained by Karachi Kings ahead of the PSL draft on a six-figure contract, is among the six English players to have a deal with a franchise.
{{/usCountry}}With 2025 being the year of the Champions Trophy, the PSL was shifted to the April-May window, resulting in it clashing with the IPL and the county season. Vince, who was retained by Karachi Kings ahead of the PSL draft on a six-figure contract, is among the six English players to have a deal with a franchise.
{{/usCountry}}Vince speculated that ECB's relation with PCB and BCCI resulted in their new policy favouring IPL over PSL.
"That's a big one that has caused a lot of confusion," Vince said. "It's got to be something to do with relationships between the ECB, PCB and BCCI as to why they've come up with that rule. The PSL's a shorter competition, so if you're going to play in that, you're probably missing less domestic cricket than if you're going to the IPL… It just didn't seem right.
"There's more and more opportunities for guys to play white-ball cricket and earn decent money during our domestic season… You're talking quite large sums of money in terms of what they forego by playing red-ball cricket. Particularly further down their careers, when there's a big difference in those numbers, I'm sure more and more people will go down that route."