ECB

Samit Patel, who has announced his retirement from domestic cricket, says he “probably wouldn’t have played” in a disapproved T20 league earlier this year had he known it would result in a ban.

Former England all-rounder Patel, 41, and Australian bowler Peter Siddle are both unable to play in the T20 Blast this summer after competing in the World Legends Pro T20 League in Goa.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) says players cannot play domestic cricket for 12 months if they have participated in a “disapproved” league such as this.

As a result, Patel has retired from domestic cricket in England but says he will still be playing franchise cricket elsewhere in the world.

“I probably wouldn’t have played it [the World Legends League],” Patel told BBC Sport’s Strategic Timeout programme.

“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.”

Patel played 60 times for England between 2008 and 2015 and made 629 appearances for Nottinghamshire over 22 years.

He then joined Derbyshire on a two-year white-ball deal in 2024 and was out of contract when he left the club at the end of last year’s T20 Blast, but said he would have liked “one more year” of domestic cricket if he had not been dealt the ban.

“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.”

Patel and Ravi Bopara, who also retired earlier this year, are the only two players to have featured in every year of the Blast since it began in 2003.

Key was also a guest on the the TMS programme and he said England will make changes in the way they approach selection.

There had been a perception that the England Test team felt like a ‘closed shop’, particularly to players in county cricket who did not fit the aggressive Bazball style.

Key said the introduction of a “county insight group” to offer input into selection will attempt to formally rebuild relations with stakeholders, including directors of cricket, in the domestic game.

The 46-year-old former Kent captain also said England’s selection policy will become more cut-throat compared to the past when certain players have almost appeared undroppable.

“We’ve overvalued loyalty and overvalued having a settled team,” Key said.

“We thought what we wanted to do is make sure we have a team that is settled out there [in Australia], that we go out there and we’re not giving debuts to opening batters [during the Ashes] and stuff like that.

“But what that does is it creates an environment where there’s not enough consequence. We need to be more ruthless with our selection.”

McCullum is due to return to work towards the end of May as England gear up for a Test series against his native New Zealand which starts at Lord’s on 4 June.

However, Vaughan felt it would have been worthwhile McCullum spending time on the circuit during the early rounds of the County Championship – for good PR if nothing else.

“I’m a bit disappointed that he’s not coming a bit earlier,” Vaughan said.

“I think at this stage, when you’re trying to win back the fans, trying to win back a little bit of the game, if I was Brendon McCullum, I’d come a few weeks earlier, get seen around the counties.

“I’d go and talk to a few coaches, go and speak to a few umpires, get seen out and about just for the optics. Because at this stage he needs the fans, and he needs the game to kind of get behind his philosophy a little bit more.”

You can watch the full TMS debate over the post-Ashes review on BBC iPlayer or download it as a podcast.