Samit Patel Retires After ECB Ban for Playing in Disapproved T20 League

Samit Patel has retired from domestic cricket after being banned from the T20 Blast for playing in a disapproved league. The former England all-rounder, 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.