Samit Patel retires after playing in 'disapproved' league

Former England all-rounder Samit Patel has announced his retirement from domestic cricket following a ban from the England Cricket Board (ECB).

A few days earlier, Patel and Australia pacer Peter Siddle were barred by the ECB from participating in the T20 Blast this summer. The ban followed after both players featured in the disapproved World Legends Pro T20 League in India.

The ECB states that players cannot feature in domestic cricket for 12 months if they play in an unapproved league.

The left-arm spinner regretted his decision to play in the league held in India in 2025, stating that he will continue to play franchise cricket around the world.

“I probably wouldn’t have played it [the World Legends League],” Samit told BBC Sport.

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“There was a lot of uncertainty about whether we could play or not but we can’t get past that now. It just brought this stuff forward for me,” he added.

The 41-year-old revealed that he would have played that summer and had held talks with some counties.

“I would have played this summer,” he said. “I had some chats with some counties, we weren’t quite at a contract signing but we were in talks, so probably would’ve got a last-minute deal somewhere,” he said.

It is worth noting that Samit made his first-class debut in 2002, aged 18. The Leiceste-born cricketer represented England in six Tests, 36 ODIs, and 18 T20Is from 2008 to 2015.

His last appearance for the Three Lions came against Pakistan in a Test match in Sharjah.

Overall, Patel finished his domestic career with more than 25,000 runs and took more than 800 wickets with his left-arm spin.

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