James Vince: Why I quit red ball cricket – and others will follow

James Vince believes that the ECB's new policy on No Objection Certificates (NOCs) is inadvertently driving players away from first-class cricket and towards the franchise T20 circuit. Vince, who stepped down as Hampshire club captain last week, will not play in the County Championship this year and expects “more and more” English players to follow suit.

Vince's decision was mainly motivated by family reasons: after inexplicable attacks on their Hampshire home last year, his family – his wife, Amy, and their two young children – are moving to Dubai. This move made playing in the Championship impractical, not least because playing the full English domestic season would have significant tax implications.

But it was also a necessary step before he would be given an NOC for the Pakistan Super League by the ECB changes in board policy at the end of November. Although intended to 'protect' English leagues, the details went down poorly with the players and the club, according to CEO Richard Gould The threat of legal action continues in some cases.

“When they first mentioned it, a WhatsApp group was created with players and there was a lot of discussion,” Vince told ESPNcricinfo from Dubai. “The initial feeling was that it would drive people away from red ball cricket. It felt like it would limit opportunities. Players were getting frustrated by it. There were a few things that [we] didn't really understand it.”

A pile-up of planning has increased the pressure PSL returns to an April-May window for 2025, which clashes with both the IPL and the start of the provincial season. Vince, who was signed by Karachi Kings on a six-figure contract, is one of six English players on deals and believes this number would have been significantly higher if the franchises were not concerned about their availability.

Vince is the fifth of those players to sign a white-ball county contract Tom Kohler-Cadmore will similarly renegotiate its deal with Somerset. Some players have privately expressed frustration at the IPL being treated as an outlier, with English players being given NOCs for that tournament regardless of their contractual situation.

“That's a big one that has caused a lot of confusion,” Vince said. “It must have something to do with the relations between the ECB, PCB and BCCI, why they came up with that rule. The PSL is a shorter league, so if you go to play in it you are likely to miss less domestic cricket than if you go to the IPL. It just didn't seem right.

“There are more and more opportunities for guys to play white ball cricket and make decent money during our domestic season. You're talking about quite large sums of money in terms of what they're missing out on by playing red ball cricket. Especially later in their career “If there's a big difference in those numbers, I'm sure more and more people will go that route.”

Vince will be a significant loss, not just for Hampshire, but for the Championship as a whole: he has made 197 first-class appearances for his country in fifteen years, captained them 92 times and guided them to three consecutive top-three finishes. He insists he is not “officially retired” from red-ball cricket, but given he turns 34 in May, his career in the format is likely over.

He has also come to terms with the end of his international career, two years after the most recent of his 55 appearances for his country. “I'd say it's probably pretty much done,” Vince admits. “There's no point in announcing your retirement if you're not playing for England, but in my head I've kind of discounted that possibility.

“It's certainly not something where, when selections are announced, I look at my phone expecting someone to call me. I had a taste of it, and that was good; obviously I would have liked to have done better and more for England played.” But because that didn't work out, I'm trying to make the most of my career.”

It will be April when Vince's decision sinks in, with Hampshire starting their season against Yorkshire without their long-serving captain. “When I'm there in Pakistan, I'm sure I'll turn on the live stream and look at the scorecards and it'll really dawn on me that something I've been involved in for the last 15 years, all of a sudden, it's not me anymore. be a strange feeling.”

But he will return to lead them in the Blast at the end of May, and says Hampshire has been “very supportive” since his stable family life was turned upside down last year. The Vinces have been living in hotels for nine months after two attacks on their home, which they have since sold, but will soon move to Dubai where they hope to resume “a reasonably normal life”.

“The cases themselves were pretty scary,” Vince remembers. 'It was people causing damage, breaking windows and stuff, instead of actually coming into the house. Police immediately said it looked like some kind of threat. We haven't had any concrete information about what exactly happened, but we have an honest idea that it wasn't intended for us.

“It was quite scary. It was more like the man of the house. Making sure it didn't affect the kids and Amy was my main priority. We sat down as a family and tried to make a plan for the future, left Groot -Britain In mid-October I went to Dubai for a month for the Abu Dhabi T10 and the Big Bash, and took some time to explore the possibility of moving here a bit.”

They hope to have the keys to their new home by the end of ILT20, where Vince will captain Gulf Giants for the third year in a row. It will give him a short break before the PSL kicks off in April to reflect on the most turbulent year of his life, one that culminated in the major career decision announced by Hampshire last week.

“My wife and the kids are very excited about the prospect of living here. We don't really have a time frame on how long that will be. If we like it, it could be indefinitely; if after a few years, if If we feel like it's not for us, then I think we have the option to move back to Britain. It's just a matter of taking it step by step and seeing where it takes us.”