{"id":501183,"date":"2026-02-24T15:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T15:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/501183\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T15:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T15:15:08","slug":"pakistani-heritage-cost-me-cpl-role-azhar-mahmood-alleges-wider-discrimination-presses-ecb-over-hundred-shadow-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/501183\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistani heritage cost me CPL role: Azhar Mahmood alleges wider discrimination, presses ECB over Hundred shadow-ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Pakistan <\/a>cricketer Azhar Mahmood<\/a> has urged the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to ensure Pakistani players are not deliberately overlooked in The Hundred, where more than 60 players from the country have registered for next month\u2019s inaugural auction. Mahmood cited his own experience of losing a coaching role due to his Pakistani heritage and alleged wider discrimination amid the global expansion of Indian Premier League (IPL<\/a>) franchises.<\/p>\n

\"AzharAzhar Mahmood played 164 international matches for Pakistan (@dhillow_\/x.com)<\/p>\n

A BBC report earlier this month highlighted concerns about a potential unofficial exclusion of Pakistani players, as four Hundred franchises now have Indian investors. Since 2009, Pakistani players have not featured in the IPL, and only a handful have represented IPL-owned teams in overseas leagues.<\/p>\n

Mahmood, who played 164 international matches for Pakistan between 1996 and 2007, revealed on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast that he once lost a coaching contract with a Caribbean Premier League franchise because of his background.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: ECB told to \u2018keep an eye out\u2019 and ensure Pakistan players feature in The Hundred: \u2018Don\u2019t want to knock India’<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened four years ago, straight after Covid, when the CPL was taking place,\u201d Mahmood said. \u201cI was approached to coach one of the franchises, and later I found out that because of my background as a Pakistani, they said they couldn\u2019t have any Pakistani coach or player in the side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahmood, who represented Surrey and Kent during a long county career and became a British citizen in 2011, later served as Pakistan\u2019s bowling coach from 2016 to 2019. He returned as acting head coach in 2025 following the departure of Jason Gillespie and has also had coaching stints in the Pakistan Super League.<\/p>\n

He claimed the issue extends beyond a single league, making it increasingly difficult for Pakistan-origin cricketers to secure roles in franchise tournaments worldwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an ideal situation for me,\u201d Mahmood said. \u201cI\u2019m an English-qualified coach. I was coaching Surrey and then worked with Pakistan for the last two years. Now, because I\u2019ve been part of the Pakistan set-up, finding roles is quite difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is connected to the IPL ecosystem. They have four or five franchise leagues \u2014 SA20, MLC. As a coach, I find it tough to get into teams owned by IPL franchises and Indian investors. It\u2019s difficult. The same applies to players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahmood has now called on the ECB to address the issue, particularly regarding MI London, Sunrisers Leeds, Manchester Super Giants and Southern Brave, all under partial IPL-linked ownership.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a large Pakistani community in England,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a strong relationship between the ECB and the Pakistan Cricket Board. Cricket fans in England, especially from the Pakistani community, are passionate about the game. Hopefully, the ECB will act on this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Pakistan cricketer Azhar Mahmood has urged the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to ensure Pakistani players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,252009,72833,740,3745,46454,252010,252011,85],"class_list":["post-501183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-azhar-mahmood","tag-cpl","tag-cricket","tag-ecb","tag-hundred","tag-hundred-pakistan","tag-hundred-pakistan-ban","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}