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 thing about always saying yes to the person with the biggest stick is that, in the end, you don't get to say yes any more. Or no. Or anything else for that matter.