The England and Wales Cricket Board has been accused of allowing non-disabled players to participate in its Disability Premier League, blocking the pathway to international cricket.

The parents of Jai Charan and Alex Jervis – both former England internationals who have diagnosed learning disabilities – say their sons have been replaced in the DPL by players who do not meet the disability criteria under the ECB’s assessment process.

The DPL is intended as the top of the pathway to the England Mixed Disability team, but another parent, who requested to remain anonymous, estimates that 12 out of 64 players selected in December’s draft are non-disabled.

The ECB is a signatory to Virtus, the international sports federation for athletes with an intellectual impairment, meaning all cricketers wanting to play international cricket under the LD (learning disability) category must demonstrate that they have an IQ of 75 or lower.

Owen Jervis, who is also the volunteer manager of Yorkshire’s disability team, alleges that the ECB have allowed several neurodiverse players to participate in the DPL, despite the fact they did not meet the criteria in the LD assessment process, carried out by an educational psychologist.

The majority of players with neurodiversity would not fulfil the ECB’s LD eligibility requirements for disability cricket. A number of neurodiverse cricketers play professional mainstream cricket, including the England bowler Em Arlott, who was diagnosed with ADHD and autism in 2023.

While the ECB is not required to adhere to Virtus regulations in the DPL as it is a domestic tournament, including non-disabled players risks undermining the purpose of the tournament. “You can’t call it a Disability Premier League if the players aren’t disabled,” Tracey Jervis said.

Another parent of a player with a learning disability says that his son has been put at a disadvantage because he plays county disability cricket, instead of mainstream (non-disabled) cricket. Many England-qualified players do not play any disability county cricket.

“It seems the county game isn’t used at all for assessing potential,” he said. “The DPL is meant to be the pinnacle for England-qualified players but after five years it has the feeling of now being a closed old boys’ club, with coaches and captains picking favourites rather than on form.”

Because of the move to mixed disability cricket – meaning that learning disability, physical disability and deaf players now play together in the same teams – there are also fewer opportunities available in each XI.

“Players with misallocated impairment and who have no LD are being categorised as LD players and take game space away from those with a qualifying disability,” Owen Jervis said. “They take the lion’s share of the game in terms of bowling and batting. Many of the LD guys are left with carrying the drinks or being good in the outfield.

“The learning disability lads, they don’t know what to say. They know they can’t meet that standard and they never will. So they just kind of go into themselves and say: ‘Well, what’s the point? I’ll do something else.’”

The Guardian spoke to several other parents who felt similarly but requested their names not be included due to concerns about repercussions for their sons. “You get a feeling that the LD people are being quietly put to one side,” one said.

Owen Jervis raised the issue via email with Richard Hill, events and competition manager for disability cricket at the ECB, in September 2024. Hill – in an email seen by the Guardian – said he was “aware of several challenges that are presenting themselves around the emergence of players in our game with high-functioning conditions” and that the ECB was developing an action plan “to manage the situation”. However, Owen says the situation has got worse, with more LD-classified players now excluded from the DPL.

The bowler Jai Charan debuted for the England LD team in 2023 and has the best bowling average and best strike rate in the history of the DPL, which has been running since 2022. Alex Jervis has represented the England LD team for a decade and won the LD Ashes three times with England. Both were reduced to the role of drinks carrier in the 2025 DPL.

Jai’s father, Shanial Charan, said: “The one place where I genuinely thought that my son would not be discriminated against because of his learning disability was disability cricket.

“Jai didn’t play a single game last season, yet he went to every single game. And in the end he made his own decision. He said: ‘Dad, I don’t want to do this any more, because all I do is I come here and I sit and I run on water. But my stats say that I’ve got the best bowling average and I’ve got the best strike rate in the history of the DPL. How come they’re not selecting me?’ How do I explain that to him?”

An ECB spokesperson said: “The Disability Premier League provides top-level competition for 60 mixed disability players each year, all of whom have an impairment, and is driving forward the standards of disability cricket. With only 60 places available – and squads needing a mix of physical disability, learning disability and deaf players – competition is intense. We recognise there are debates around the appropriate eligibility criteria, and with the competition now five years old we are currently reviewing this with a view to any changes coming into place in 2027.”