Proposed ICC cap on T20 leagues unlikely to work: Morgan

LONDON: The International Cricket Council (ICC) will face considerable opposition from players if it tries to bring in a cap on involvement in T20 leagues around the world, England’s limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan has said.

The ICC plans to limit players to three T20 engagements a year but Morgan warned there would be “huge legal ramifications” to such a restriction of employment.He believes that far from impacting negatively on international cricket, the growth of T20 leagues has benefited the player pool by providing increased exposure and opportunity.

“I’m sure there would be some huge legal ramifications, of restricting guys’ employment, so I’m sure that would be met with quite a big [resistance]... I’m not sure how it would work,” Morgan said. “I don’t see that going through.”

Earlier this year, FICA warned that more and more young players were considering becoming free agents in order to play T20 around the globe, which could in turn undermine the value of international competition.

However, Morgan believes prohibition is not the way to go.“It creates a question, if you’re a young player, whether you want to make a decision early about sacrificing playing international cricket or going to one of the leagues,” he said. “It’s not really a question you want to be asking yourself - or you shouldn’t have to ask yourself.”

Morgan also played down the possibility of disruption for England’s ODI side if the ECB’s Cricket Disciplinary Commission decides to hand out further punishment to Ben Stokes.“We’ve spent a winter dealing with everything in the lead up to the court case,” he said.“Ben was away, he missed the Australian ODIs, which was disappointing but it is what it is. Certainly as a team we were able to deal with that.”