Major League Cricket to offer Jason Roy £300k to play, raising the ECB’s fears over the US franchise

Power brokers from the new United States league will test England’s resolve by attempting to recruit Jason Roy for their initial foray into the franchise world.

Major League Cricket, the first Twenty20 competition to directly clash with peak English summer, are prepared to offer up to £300,000 to the Surrey opener to play in July’s inaugural competition in Dallas as they seek to bring the biggest names to the United States.

The ECB do not want their top players and coaches to play in America, where five of the six new franchises are backed by the Indian Premier League, because of fears it might take them away from future involvement in their own franchise creation the Hundred.

But they may not be able to stop the likes of 50-over World Cup winning hero Roy who has lost his place in England’s T20 set-up and is now only on an incremental contract. And the ECB made no attempt to stop Roy playing in the Pakistan Super League last month.

The first American competition does not clash with this year’s Hundred, which for probably only one more summer has an international-free window in August, but any involvement from Roy might mean him missing part of Surrey’s Twenty20 Blast campaign.

England are going to increase match-fees for non-centrally contracted players like Roy 

England, as the Mail on Sunday revealed this week, are planning to fight off the threat of the franchises to the primacy of international cricket by vastly increasing match-fees for non-centrally contracted players.

It remains to be seen whether, long-term, that is enough to keep the ever-increasing number of leagues backed by big IPL cash at bay.