England batter Ollie Pope has decided to pull out of the Afghanistan Premier League T20 ahead of the upcoming draft for their inaugural season. Pope made the decision amid backlash against English players for potential participation, as the ECB has refused to play Afghanistan recently due to the Taliban's treatment of women.
Richard Thompson, the board chairman, said last week that the ECB would have to think very carefully indeed before granting NOCs to English players to play in the APL, citing UK restraint of trade laws as the problem.
Rob Key, the ECB's managing director of men's cricket, said players should take a moral stand on participating in franchise competitions, even if there are limited legal grounds to prevent them. While admitting the decision rests with individual players, Key said he would personally choose not to participate.
"Legally it is hard to stop players going over and playing in these competitions," Key told the Test Match Special podcast. "It becomes a moral judgement and players have to be prepared to take the right moral stance.
"Personally, and it is easy for me to say, I would not go and play. But it is down to the player to make that decision."
{{/usCountry}}"Personally, and it is easy for me to say, I would not go and play. But it is down to the player to make that decision."
{{/usCountry}}He added: "I don't agree with the way that women have been treated out in Afghanistan, and the way that things happen in that country is not something that I agree with, so it's not something that I would go and do."
According to a Cricinfo report, Pope withdrew his name from the draft and made the decision before Key shared his stance on Monday. Will Smeed and David Willey are the other two players who have pulled out of the draft, which will take place on October 24.
Dawid Malan remains available for APL
Meanwhile, former English opener Dawid Malan has made himself available for the draft and has also made his stance clear on the matter.
"As players we take our guidance from the ICC and the boards. I have a daughter, I want her to play sport, I want her to get into playing sport and enjoying it, so I fully understand that argument. But at the end of the day, I'm a cricketer. I need to be able to pay my rent and I need to be able to earn a living while I can, so as long as it's been approved by the boards, I am happy to go," Maland told the Test Match Special podcast.