Former England star Moeen Ali has spoken out after reports that some teams in The Hundred may avoid picking Pakistani players.
Media reports said four Indian owned teams in the tournament may not select players from Pakistan because of political tension between the two countries. The teams named in the reports were Manchester Super Giants, MI London, Southern Brave and Sunrisers Leeds.
Moeen said such behaviour would be wrong and should not happen in the UK. He urged the organisers to make sure the auction stays fair for all players.
“In the UK, I’m not sure that can happen – and I hope it doesn’t happen,” Moeen told Telegraph Sport.
“It just shouldn’t happen, hopefully it won’t happen. We just have to wait and see if it does, but I think it’d be a massive shame, and I’m sure the ECB will definitely keep an eye out.”
Moeen also said players will not stay silent if they feel anyone is treated unfairly. He believes many cricketers would raise their voices and push team owners to change their stance.
“There’ll be a group of players that will speak up,” he added. “There’ll be things done about it. I think players should speak up. Anyone that has any sort of concern for these kind of things – it doesn’t matter if they have Pakistani heritage – should speak up.”
“Obviously, the news is very new. So I’ve not really had a chance to speak to anyone, but most of the players would be on the same page. It’d be really interesting to see what happens, because I genuinely think other countries can do what they want, obviously we’re not in control of those things, but in the UK, we have a bit more say about these things.”
