The thing about inviting a tiger round for tea is, for all the excitement, the fur, the teeth, the muscles, they do tend to walk off with your dinner and drink all the water in the taps.The thing about saying yes to the person with the biggest stick is, in the end, you don’t get to say yes, or no, or anything at all.And that person still has a very big stick.The thing about closing your eyes and just taking the money is: money passes only in exchange for something of value, and full payment will be taken.Welcome to English cricket in full blind, groping crisis mode, and the first small tremor of what lies in store whatever happens in the next few weeks.

Here is a question no one has answered yet,Could the England and Wales Cricket Board, the Hundred franchises and their county partners find themselves on the end of an employment law claim for discrimination in the workplace if Pakistan players are absent from next season’s roster?The obvious answer is: probably not,Nothing has happened yet,The BBC published a story suggesting the four Indian-owned Hundred franchises have reservations about hiring Pakistan players,The ECB has energetically denied the existence of a shadow ban, something it cannot actually know for sure.

But so far this is all just chat, hypotheticals, new-era angst.The second obvious answer is: does it actually matter now? The mere fact that this is any kind of issue is already devastating.Here we have a scenario whereby the ECB’s great glossily packaged commercial project, sold as a force for sunlight, modernity, and openness, could end up actively reinforcing the exclusion of cricketers based on race.At which point the whole thing simply collapses.Every part of the Hundred’s staging, the beamingly self‑righteous tone, the schmaltzy marketing, the prim ECB talk about “enshrining” equality in its statutes.

All of it goes up in smoke if in reality the message is: you’re not coming in if you’re Pakistani,The broader answer to that question about legal action is: well, maybe,This could theoretically happen,Certainly, it may not be as difficult as many have assumed, if the wrong kind of dots are joined, and if anyone out there has the will and the means,Little wonder the ECB has spent the week, for want of a better phrase, crapping itself, its chief executive, Richard Gould, and chair, Richard Thompson, whirling around trying to put out the fire on their own tail; a fire that, in a gallows humour twist, was set by their own hand.

This is the key point.Nobody can say they weren’t warned.The ECB knew all about the potential exclusion of Pakistani players from the Hundred.It refused to demand hard public safeguards as the sale to Indian-owned finance progressed.Gould, in particular, actively soft‑soaped suggestions selling off a month of the summer to politically aligned private equity could come with any strings, baggage, or unwanted influence.

Why would anyone pretend to be certain about this? Everybody knows selection around the world has been affected by the hostile relations between India and Pakistan.Everyone knows Indian cricket tends to fall into line with Indian politics, and specifically its ruling Bharatiya Janata party.The BJP is led by Narendra Modi.Jay Shah, the chair of the International Cricket Council, is the son of Modi’s oldest political ally.There is no pretence here, no shadow dance.

It’s all out in the open,Cricket’s global infrastructure, macro and micro, is dictated not just by a single nation, but by a single nationalistic movement within that nation,As such everybody in English cricket with half a brain has known a degree of power and control was factored into those wildly trumpeted Hundred purchase prices,Does anyone involved in English cricket actually have half a brain? Lancashire’s chief executive, Daniel Gidney, pound signs flickering across his eyeballs, even suggested the Hundred should sell a stake directly to the Board of Control for Cricket in India, and in effect to the Indian government,This is who is in charge here.

This is English cricket, always hungry, always banging its spoon on the high chair tray, always looking for someone else to feed it.And now we have a sneak preview of what selling off the summer can mean in practice.The auction list for the men’s Hundred will be cut from 710 players to about 200 in the coming days, with 63 Pakistanis in the mix.The ECB has written to the Hundred franchises warning of “action” should there be evidence of discrimination in their selection.What action? Nobody knows, although there has been chilling talk of a referral to the cricket regulator.

That sound you can hear is the chatter of billionaire teeth.Oh yes.Spank me, daddy.Issue your sternly worded warnings.As things stand it would be very surprising, given the sensibilities, if none of the longlisted players are from Pakistan.

Guys.Throw the Richards a bone.They’re dying out here.But beyond this there are two well-rehearsed justifications for a Pakistan-free roster.First, nobody can actually prove this is a deliberate policy, twinned with the suggestion Pakistan’s players aren’t good enough anyway.

And second the idea India is paying for all this, so it can do what it wants.Both are misguided.The second one is key.At which point, enter: the law.“Discrimination on the basis of nationality, ethnicity or national origins is a form of race discrimination under the Equality Act 2010,” says Susan Perry, a partner at the law firm Brecher LLP.

“It applies to both prospective and current employees.There are certainly some issues to be considered at ECB and franchise level, with who might be most at risk of a claim depending upon how the contracts are structured.”The idea that Pakistan players as a bloc aren’t good enough to be considered seems less plausible when the top run-scorer at the current T20 World Cup plays for Pakistan and is in the current Hundred auction list.This seems like a fairly strong objective case for selection.To be clear, the fault lies in failing to consider someone fairly for employment, not in the simple fact of not employing them.

It applies at the recruitment stage,Discrimination does not have to be proved beyond doubt,The law accepts hard proof is very rare,A balance of probabilities is often enough,Evidence of favourable treatment can be deduced from surrounding circumstances.

The law is tenacious.It won’t be shrugged off.Who could face legal action over this? UK employment law can be applied to overseas bodies in the right circumstances.But the counties are vulnerable, too.Have they taken all reasonable steps to ensure all possible employees of the new teams are treated equally by everyone at every stage of recruitment? Can they prove they have done this?More of a stretch: what is the ECB’s exposure? Given the evidence of every other franchise league it was entirely foreseeable this would become an issue.

The pattern is clear,The two Indian Premier League‑affiliated ILT20 franchises in the United Arab Emirates, sister clubs of MI London and Southern Brave, haven’t signed a Pakistan player in four seasons,No Pakistan player has ever been signed by the Indian‑owned teams in South Africa’s SA20,We’re not children,We know this is happening.

The ECB simply brushed away the prospect of it coming to the Hundred.“We’re aware of that in other regions,” Gould said last year.“But that won’t be happening here.” Riiight …This is not to say anyone is actually going to end up in court.But it is important to note that this is at least a possibility, that if what has happened elsewhere continues to its logical end, the Hundred could be in breach of UK laws on discrimination.

And this is, let us be clear, a jaw-dropper in its own right.Forget the legal angle.How about the moral angle? Remember that? How has the ECB put our summer sport in this position? How have we reached a point where avoiding a legal claim under anti-racism laws can be seen as a win? How does even asking this question sit with the constant fanfaring on inclusion and outreach? How will girls and boys of Pakistan origin feel entering the pathway of their local franchise?And how can any of this sit with the fine intentions of the ECB’s State of Equity report, published in November last year, and billed as evidence of progress made in “engaging with ethnically diverse communities”.The report is introduced by Gould’s own noble chat about making cricket “the most inclusive team sport” in the country.Oh yeah?“It is vital that we do not take our foot off the pedal,” Gould warns everyone else, while chastising the counties, urging them to create a culture of genuine anti‑racism, to become active allies.

An entire section talks up street cricket sessions designed to persuade people in Milton Keynes from Pakistani communities to take up the game,This is not credible, it means nothing, if it is not possible to be Pakistani in the Hundred,It is to be hoped none of this will come to pass, that the political pressures, the danger of brand‑collapse will be enough,If not, the ECB executive is hugely exposed,Gould wrote in November of his own willingness to be “held to account when it comes to our ambitions around equity, diversity and inclusion”.

Fine words.But hostage to fortune now.Tick tock.