• Home
  • Player Stories
  • England Cricket Is Priority Jason Roy Amidst Speculation Of Terminating Ecb Contract For Mlc

'England Cricket is Priority…': Jason Roy Amidst Speculation of Terminating ECB Contract For MLC

image-li3c942jJason Roy celebrates his 12th ODI ton in Bangladesh (Twitter)

Jason Roy has issued a clarification response over claims of terminating ECB’s incremental contract to play in the United States. The cricketer stated that playing for his country continues to remain the highest possible honour for him, and is hoping to represent England for years to come in international cricket.

Jason Roy says he will never walk away from England

Jason Roy put up an Instagram story, where he clarified that he is not walking away from England cricket.

On the verge of finalising a deal with a Major League Cricket franchise, the Los Angeles Knight Riders, the cricketer stated that he has already had supportive conversations about it with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

Roy claimed that the board is happy in allowing him to play in the upcoming US-based T20 competition, as long as they do not have to pay him for the remainder of his contractual year.

 His Instagram story reads:

“Following a bit of unwanted speculation over the last 24 hours, I wanted to clarify that I am not and never will walk away from England. Representing the country continues to be my proudest moment as a professional cricketer. I hope to play for England for many more years, that remains my priority.”

“I’ve had clear and supportive conversations with the ECB about participating in MLC. The ECB were happy with me to play in the competition as long as they didn’t have to pay me for the remainder of the contractual year.”

The 32-year-old, who represented the KKR franchise in the recently-concluded IPL 2023 season, also added that he has no scheduling conflicts with England, considering he is a single format player with no central contract.

He claimed that he simply wants to play as much competitive cricket as possible in a World Cup year.

“As a single format player with no central contract, I wanted to take the opportunity to play this competition as there are currently no scheduling conflicts with England. It benefits me as an England player to play as much competitive cricket as possible.”

“Just to be very clear, my priority is England cricket, especially with a World Cup soon upon us. It is for me, and for any player, the greatest honour to receive a cap to play for their country.”

It'll be interesting to see how the situation pans out in the upcoming days.