ILT20 and MLC may breathe easy with regulatory changes likely to be postponed
An ICC review group had recommended that there be limit on overseas player presence in playing eleven
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Mumbai: There may yet be breathing room for certain short-format franchise leagues like the ILT20 and MLC. The International Cricket Council (ICC) is set to push back on recommendations from its franchise league review group, one recommendation is to limit overseas player presence to 4 in the playing eleven. The move would have hurt the two leagues in question considerably.
The ICC Chief Executives Committee meeting in Bali on Saturday discussed the review group's recommendations, but, for now, any decision has been pushed back to the ICC board meeting on Sunday, HT learns. “Even in the board meeting, it is expected that there will only be discussions, the recommendations are unlikely to be implemented right away,” a member privy to the discussions said.
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The ILT20 currently allows up to nine foreign players in a playing eleven, one mandated to be an Associate member. Similarly, MLC allows up to six overseas players in the playing eleven. If overseas player presence was restricted, these leagues would severely lose their sheen as the local pool of players from UAE or USA or from other Associate nations would not be as strong to retain commercial or competitive heft.
Both the leagues have sizable ownership presence from the IPL with four out of six ILT20 owners and three in MLC also owning IPL teams, partly or wholly. Those involved have been keen to push back on stringent regulatory changes after they were last promised that they would be exempt from changes that are made in future. The ILT20’s next edition is set to begin on Nov 22.
The review group headed by BCB president Tamim Iqbal, that also includes Richard Gould (CEO ECB), Todd Greenberg (CEO CA) and Devajit Saikia (secretary BCCI) had also made other recommendations which included a climbdown on use of betting companies or surrogates in sponsorship as well as strengthening the anti-corruption mechanism on the franchise T20 circuit. Some of these reform measures will be discussed in the board meeting where more parties directly affected by the changes will be on the table. Broadly, the ICC is looking at greater oversight on mushrooming franchise leagues.
