The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is reportedly ready to offer Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises a stake in teams playing in The Hundred, an upcoming tournament which will be played in a new, 100-ball format, to lure India's star players to the competition.
The ECB is also considering giving the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) a stake in the Asian television rights on the basis of the number of Indian players appearing in the tournament, according to The Telegraph.
According to the report, talks between the BCCI and the ECB "moved up a notch" when ECB chairman Ian Watmore and chief executive Tom Harrison were in Ahmedabad for the pink ball Test match between India and England last month.
It is further reported that Indian players will also be made available for the women's Hundred and pave the way for the men to take part next year.
Further meetings are planned between the officials when India tour England this summer.
Originally scheduled to start in 2020, The Hundred was postponed last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is scheduled to start on July 21 at the Oval this year, just before the start of India's Test series against England.
India captain Virat Kohli had, in 2018, voiced his apprehension of playing in a new format of cricket when there are already three formats.
"I'm already very... I wouldn't say frustrated but sometimes it can get very demanding of you when you have to play so much cricket regularly. I feel somewhere the commercial aspect is taking over the real quality of cricket and that hurts me," Kohli told Wisden Cricket Monthly during India's tour of England in 2018.
"I don't want to be a testing sort of a cricketer for any new format. I don't want to be someone who's going to be part of that World XI who comes and launches the 100-ball format. I love playing the IPL, I love watching the BBL, because you're working towards something, competing against high-quality sides and it gets your competitive juices flowing. That's what you want as a cricketer. I'm all for the leagues but not to experiment," he said.
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