Explained: Why more England players could soon pull out of WPL 2024?

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)’s new diktat has put its women players on a crossroad where they could be forced to choose between representing their country in the upcoming five-match T20I series in New Zealand or playing in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024. The WPL 2024 starts on 23 February with the final scheduled for 17 March. England first T20I against New Zealand will be played on 19 March in Dunedin. The short turnaround between the WPL final and the first T20I means, the English players who play in WPL 2024 final will be forced to miss at least the first T20I, but according to an ultimatum given by ECB, players who stay in India till the end of WPL will not be considered for the first three T20Is, ESPNCricinfo reported. The England squad is not named so far but it’s impossible to predict which England players will be involved in the final and hence there’s pressure on all first-choice players to pull out from the WPL at least before the final or completely. This has already led to a few players pulling out including captain Heather Knight who was part of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). “Sad to announce I’m withdrawing from the @wplt20 this year, but it’s the right thing for me to be available for the whole England tour of NZ. All the best @royalchallengersbangalore and @smriti_mandhana for the coming season,” Heather announced on Instagram.

Lauren Bell, who was part of UP Warriorz, pulled out on Friday. “I am gutted to be missing this years WPL with the @upwarriorz . My priority at this time is my preparation for @englandcricket tour of NZ & so unfortunately I’ve had to withdraw from the competition. I’ll be supporting the girls from a far,” Bell posted on Instagram.

Six more England players are going to be part of WPL 2024 including Alice Capsey (Delhi Capitals), Issy Wong and Nat Sciver-Brunt (Mumbai Indians), Kate Cross (Royal Challengers Bangalore), Sophie Ecclestone and Danni Wyatt (UP Warriorz). England head coach Jon Lewis is also the coach UP Warriorz. The England players are set to draw salaries ranging from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 3.2 crore in WPL 2024, but with national salaries also going up and now being equal to what men’s team gets, money mostly is not going to force English players to pick WPL over national duty. This only means that we can see a host of England players withdrawing from WPL 2024 now and it will be interesting to see how BCCI reacts to it. Why ECB is being so strict? The 2024 T20 World Cup is schedule for September and October in Bangladesh and the England board wants its best players to play for the national team regularly as they prepare to win the ICC title.