Mark Butcher has defended Harry Brook's decision to withdraw from IPL 2025, even if he cops a multi-year ban from the competition, ahead of a "career-defining" international summer.
Speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast this week, Butcher backed Brook's decision to withdraw from the competition two weeks before it's set to start. The England middle-order batter released a statement on social media announcing that would not play in the tournament as he "needed time to recharge following the busiest period of [his] career to date". Brook had been due to play for Delhi Capitals after he was picked up in the auction for £590,000.
In defending the decision, Butcher pointed to what could be a momentous summer for Brook, especially given that he is the favourite to be named England's next white-ball captain.
Butcher: England fans would love Brook's decision
"There's the subtext of new white-ball captain for England - you wonder whether or not he's been tipped the wink that it might be him," said Butcher. "But you reeled off all the commitments that he's had since taking that break last winter and it's been very much full on and it doesn't change. This summer is going to be huge: Six Test matches, five against India, the Zimbabwe Test in May before that, various white-ball commitments as well that he will be involved in and then the Ashes.
"If you're going to take a break - I mean England fans will be saying: 'Good on you, hats off', because I think people get a bit sick of hearing players say they need a break and then you don't see them playing for England when they've spent two and a half months at the IPL. So it will be a popular decision among the fans and supporters here."
Will Brook's withdrawal get him banned from IPL?
This is the second year running Brook has pulled out of the IPL, after he pulled out with 10 days notice last year to be with his family after the death of his grandmother. Delhi Capitals were once again the affected franchise on that occasion, with the bereavement also causing him to miss England's Test tour of India last winter.
The result of pulling out of the competition this time around means Brook could face a ban from the competition. New rules were put in place this year to deter overseas players from pulling out of the tournament at short notice, with a note to franchises last September reading: "Any [overseas] player who registers for [an] auction and, after getting picked at the auction, makes himself unavailable before the start of the season will get banned from participating in the IPL/IPL auction for two seasons."
Butcher: Brook will make a lot of money playing for England
However, Butcher also defended Brook's decision despite the ban that could be given to him. "Even if he ends up pulling a two-year ban because they've changed the rules and got sick of players signing up through the auction process and then pulling out on the eve of the tournament, which is absolutely their right to do - I don't blame them for that whatsoever, the age that he is he's got a lot of IPLs in him," said Butcher.
"This could be a career-defining, I think it's a team-defining or a project-defining summer for England and McCullum and Key and Stokes. So therefore I think he's made the right call. And he will make a lot of money playing for England.
"It's one of the great advantages of being a capped, contracted England player, your compensation is very good. And that's part of something that I know Rob Key and the ECB have been in long discussions about, right the way back in 2022 when he took over. If we're going to protect ourselves, protect the national team and the national sport from outside influences, we need to make sure that the players we want and that we need are recompensed equitably with those tournaments."
Brook has played one season in the IPL for Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2023, in which he had a difficult campaign. He scored 190 runs in 11 matches, with more than half of those runs coming in a magnificent century off 55 balls.
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