A news release cited Shaheen Afridi as stating, “I’m sad to miss out on playing for Welsh Fire this year.” “I was thrilled to be back in Cardiff after having such a great time at the Hundred the previous season. I hope the Welsh Fire team and coach Mike Hussey have the best of luck in 2024.”
According to Shaheen Afridi’s official explanation to the ECB, which ESPNcricinfo understands, he is hesitant to commit to spending four weeks away from his family. Players are required to report a few days prior to their initial match for The Hundred, which takes place from July 23 to August 18.
According to the conditions of their central contracts with the PCB, Pakistani players are only allowed two No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) to participate in overseas leagues per season. Avram Glazer’s Desert Vipers in the UAE’s ILT20 had already signed Afridi to a long-term contract.
Rather than use his second Not-Out Certificate on the Hundred, Afridi intends to participate in the privately run Canadian competition known as the Global T20, which is scheduled to reopen for a fourth season in 2024. Although the league’s organisers have not yet released a schedule, it is anticipated to run from July 25 to August 11—a somewhat shorter period than the Hundred.
The COVID epidemic caused the first two editions of the Global T20 to be postponed indefinitely in 2018 and 2019. It made a surprise comeback in 2023, running concurrently with the first Major League Cricket (MLC) and drawing a strong roster of international players, including Andre Russell, Mohammad Rizwan, and Shakib Al Hasan.
Over the last 24 months, the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) has received reports of late or non-payment difficulties with the Global T20. FICA advises that “any participating players request advanced payment” on its league portal as a result.
Afridi’s replacement at Welsh Fire in the Hundred will undoubtedly be New Zealand seamer Matt Henry. Since over half of the men’s foreign players signed up for the Hundred in a similar circumstance, he might miss the start of the tournament if his MLC team, the San Francisco Unicorns, makes it to the play-offs.
The ECB decided to open up the Hundred to commercial investment in part because they wanted to match the salaries offered in other leagues. Naseem Shah (Birmingham Phoenix), Haris Rauf (Welsh Fire), Imad Wasim (Trent Rockets), and Usama Mir (Manchester Originals) are the other four Pakistani players that have contracts in the men’s hundred for 2024.
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