Race discrimination in The Hundred? That’s just not cricket

The Hundred was launched by the English Cricket Board (ECB) in 2021 as their flagship product and their offering in the global growth of short-form cricket. It has since divided opinion amongst cricket fans between purist fans of the original game, and those who seek to prioritise opening cricket to new audiences.

A further and perhaps more serious controversy has subsequently arisen in the form of potential race discrimination in how players are selected for The Hundred teams.  

Last summer, the ECB decided to sell their 49% stake in each of The Hundred teams to outside investors. Four of the eight The Hundred teams are now entirely or partially owned by the same Indian-owned groups that preside over four of the franchises of the Indian Premier League (IPL), with two of the four teams purchasing controlling stakes.  

Since the ECB decided to sell its shares in four of the eight Hundred teams to those Indian-owned groups, the issue of potential discrimination against Pakistani players has been raised by many, given India’s relations with and stance with respect to Pakistan. After the equity sales of the teams had gone through in 2025, ECB Chief Executive Richard Gould - when asked about the restrictions on Pakistani players in other global tournaments - said “we’re aware of that in other regions, but that won’t be happening here”.  

Fast forward to February 2026, and journalist Tom Grundy reported that the BBC had seen messages from a senior ECB official indicating to an agent that interest in his Pakistan players would be limited to sides not linked to the IPL. A statement issued in response by The Hundred and all its eight teams on 24 February 2026 reaffirmed their commitment to “selection being based solely on cricketing performance, availability, and the needs of each team”. But the leak seemed to confirm the suspicions many already had.  

Cricket followers have already seen the discrimination against Pakistani players with the well-known unwritten prohibition on playing in the IPL, which has, over the last few years, been imposed in other global franchise leagues as Indian ownership has grown considerably. In the South African SA20 – where all six teams are owned by IPL franchise groups - there have been no Pakistani players in any of the four years it has been running. The multiple Indian-owned teams in both the United Arab Emirates’ ILT20 league and the United States’ Major League Cricket have also never selected a Pakistani player.  

It now appears that discrimination may have taken place against Pakistani men in this year’s iteration of The Hundred.

When The Hundred ‘longlist’ was created – the result of a collation of the choices of each team, who were able to choose 75-100 players of interest to try to narrow down the larger list of all player entries – the number of Pakistani men decreased from 63 to just 14. This was a larger percentage decrease than the general decrease with the entire cohort. Those not selected as persons of interest included Sahibzada Farhan, the leading run-scorer in the 2026 T20 World Cup. The 14 players that were left may have only been selected by the non-Indian-owned teams, although the true number of Pakistani men that received selections as players of interest by the four Indian-owned teams remains unclear.

Each team was also able to select four players before the auction, with two of these being an ‘overseas’ selection. None of the 16 ‘overseas’ players initially chosen by each team were Pakistani.  

In the auction that took place on 12 March, two Pakistani players were selected generally, with only one selected by the four Indian-owned teams. Three of the four Indian-owned teams did not place a bid on any Pakistani player at any point.

There were also no Pakistani women selected by any of the Hundred teams in the women’s main auction.  

Former England all-rounder Moeen Ali, who is of Pakistani heritage and whose pre-auction comments that the ECB must “protect” Pakistani players as discrimination “can’t happen in the UK” garnered significant media attention, was not even selected on the longlist.  

The ECB’s words do not appear to have led to proper action if, by the close of play, Pakistani players are being excluded from the Hundred.  

Discrimination on the basis of nationality, ethnicity or national origins is a manifestation of race discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. The apparent exclusion of Pakistani cricketers shares many similarities to what we see at Leigh Day on a day-to-day basis when we investigate allegations of discrimination.

If you have an interest in the issues raised in this article, please do get in touch with Leigh Day’s employment law team.