England players set to get NOCs for Afghanistan Premier League: report

LONDON: The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is all set to grant its players the No Objection Certificate (NOC) to participate in the inaugural edition of the Afghanistan Premier League (APL), international media reported on Wednesday.

The ECB has been one of the most vocal critics of the Afghanistan government due to its treatment of women and thus does not engage in bilateral series with the country's men's cricket team.

The cricket board faced stern political pressure last year to withdraw from their ICC Men's Champions Trophy match against Afghanistan, but the fixture went ahead as per the schedule and saw the Asian side prevailing by eight runs.

Earlier this year in May, ECB chair Richard Thompson reiterated the concerns on women's safety in Afghanistan and asserted that the board will not play bilateral matches with them, but the face-off in the International Cricket Council (ICC) events will be treated as an exemption.

However, for the inaugural edition of the APL, scheduled to commence on December 27 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the ECB has decided to give its players a go-ahead for the tournament, international cricket news website Cricinfo reported earlier today.

The report further suggested that despite its reservations, the ECB will treat the APL in the same way as any other overseas franchise league if it manages to obtain an ICC sanction.

Although the players' draft for the inaugural edition of the APL was postponed from September 27 to October 24, the league's organisers recently unveiled the list of registered cricketers, which included two ECB-contracted players, Ollie Pope and Luke Wood.

Besides them, several other England players, such as James Vince, Moeen Ali, Jason Roy, Reece Topley, Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Laurie Evans, have also put their names forward for the newly-launched franchise league.

On the other hand, a handful of Afghanistan cricketers also featured in ECB-sanctioned leagues, with Noor Ahmad and Rashid Khan representing Manchester Super Giants and MI London, respectively, in this year's The Hundred men's competition, while Fazalhaq Farooqi featured in the T20 Blast.