‘It’s a missed opportunity’- Mark Butcher feels ECB should have accepted BCCI offer and have Kohli, Dhoni in the Hundred

Cricketer turned commentator Mark Butcher recently stated that England and Wales Cricket Board(ECB) should have accepted BCCI offer of conducting IPL 2021 remaining matches in UK in retrospect they should have asked for players like Dhoni and Kohli to take part in the upcoming season of The Hundred.

As BCCI requested ECB to tweak schedule of the upcoming five-match Test series between two giants of the game to accommodate a date for organizing cash-rich league in England. However, ECB later confirmed that no such request was made from BCCI.

As England and Wales Cricket Board(ECB) proposed a new 100 ball format which is all set to start this year where top stars from all over the world barring the Indian men’s team will be seen taking part in the marquee event. Now the tournament is ready to roll and Butcher feels that the likes of Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni could have been part of the upcoming event.

“…the ECB is absolutely desperate to make this work. They have to be, they have bet the house on The Hundred, but at every turn, it seems a greater power doesn’t want it to happen. And so for me, this was the opportunity where you’ll say ‘Okay, we’ll bite the bullet… We would do this for the BCCI on the provision that we get Kohli, Dhoni, whoever we like, signed up for three years to play in The Hundred, starting 2022’,” Butcher added.

Indian women’s players including the likes of Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandana, Deepti Sharma and Jemimah Rodriques are all set to represent Manchester Originals, Southern Brave, London Spirit, and Northern Superchargers respectively in the inaugural edition of the mega event.

As per the latest developments, the second leg of IPL 2021 is all set to resume in the month of September in UAE.