Indian Cricket Stars Could Play In England's New 100-Ball Tournament: Report

Indian cricket stars are rarely seen plying their trade in professional leagues outside of India. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is probably the only non-Test domestic tournament that stars like Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni even think of playing. While there has been a lot of clamour from across the border to get Team India stars to play in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), the first sighting of an Indian star playing in a foreign domestic limited-overs league could be in the 'Hundred' tournament, which starts in England in 2020.

"India's all-powerful cricket authority, the BCCI, which bans its players from overseas T20 tournaments to protect their market-leading Indian Premier League, are understood to be considering making an exception for the Hundred because it is played over 100 balls compared to 120," read a dailymail.co.uk report.

According to the report, BCCI's decision to allow the Indian players from participating in the 100-ball an innings tournament would serve as a bargaining chip for negotiations around an IPL franchise in London.

"Having Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and other top Indians playing would be an immense boost for the Hundred in its inaugural year, especially when England's Test players will not be involved. It would also be a helpful bargaining chip for future negotiations around an IPL franchise in London," the report said.

Over the years, England too have softened their stand on the IPL. English internationals in the IPL were a rare sight in the initial couple of years of the Indian Premier League, however, that has changed completely in the past few years.

Ben Stokes has been the most expensive buy in the IPL for two consecutive auctions while the likes of Jos Buttler, by the virtue of their IPL performance, have gotten call-ups to the national side.