Lancashire CEO Daniel Gidney believes that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) should include the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as a minority ownership partner of The Hundred.
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Gidney feels that The Hundred could benefit financially if some of the top Indian stars play in the English cricket league.
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Indian men's cricket team players are currently not allowed to play any form of franchise cricket outside the Indian Premier League (IPL). However, players from the women's team, like Smriti Mandhana and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, have played in England's The Hundred and in the Women's Big Bash League in Australia.
What did David Gidney say?
The Lancashire CEO feels that although BCCI's stance of not sending players from the men's team is very clear, an ownership interest can change their minds.
Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, Gidney said, "I think it’s possible. If I was the ECB, I’d be talking about perhaps bringing the BCCI in as a minority ownership partner in the tournament as a whole. If you do that, then you are aligning interests.
"That is probably your best chance of getting (Indian) players in The Hundred. It comes down to the will and the individuals on both sides."
Gidney also credited the BCCI for successfully protecting their brand by enforcing policies, which has helped them shape the IPL.
"The BCCI have been really successful with protecting their brand and by making sure they don’t plan any T20 tournaments anywhere in the world."
The official further stated that if he were in the BCCI setup, he would have asked for a significant incentive to relax the current policy of not allowing the players to play elsewhere in the world.
"If I was the BCCI, then I would have to say I would need a significant incentive to relax the current policy because that has been extraordinarily successful and has grown the IPL into the massive commercial entity that it is."
Gidney continued: "We’ve probably had more Indian overseas players than any other county. When you have VVS Laxman at the NCA, who Mark Chilton (Lancashire Director of Cricket) captained, then you have strong relationships all the way through.
"If you build a relationship with the BCCI and understand the types of players that they see as potential future Test players, that’s a lot easier than putting in an NOC request saying, 'We’d like to see Virat Kohli or Rishabh Pant playing in the County Championship'."
The Lancashire CEO was reportedly visited India recently to meet the RP-Sanjiv Goenka (RPSG) Group, who own a 70% stake in the Manchester Originals team and run it as a joint venture.
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