Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

Former Pakistan captains including Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram, who feel the cash-rich Twenty20 competition has begun to damage the international cricket calendar - The Hindu reported today.

“The IPL has already started hurting the international calendar and in the long run it will encourage more private parties and organisations to come in and start their own leagues if they have big money to roll,” he said on Friday.

Miandad said the IPL would create a divide in international cricket and feared players would be willing to sacrifice their international careers to play for more money in the the BCCI-backed league.

“People are comparing the IPL with the Kerry Packer series in the late ’70s. But these are two totally different things. The Packer series was held when players were paid ridiculously low wages,” Miandad said.

“The Packer circus brought in new concepts into international cricket which were beneficial in the long run and it forced the boards to improve pay structures to a reasonable level. The figures being quoted by the IPL organisers are ridiculously high,” he said.

Miandad said when the International Cricket Council had decided to host the Twenty20 World Championship every alternate year, there was no room for a private league.

Akram also raised an alarm in a television interview, saying the IPL could prove to be a negative distraction for international players as they could end up preferring to play in private leagues than for their national teams.

True everyone has their point of view but one should not be blind to the fact that such tournaments also helps players and cultures break barriers like Hayden said and also bring out the best in the field.

India has no option but to defer Zimbabwe Tour due to the already crammed cricket schedule.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has deferred proposed one-day series in Zimbabwe scheduled in June because of crammed international itinerary, including the much-famed Indian premier League (IPL), which begins on April 18 and will run for the next 44 days.

“We have decided to put off Zimbabwe tour. The hectic calendar makes it quite impossible and we have conveyed the decision to the Zimbabwe Cricket Union,” BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah added.

The series that includes three ODI’s is part of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Future Tours programme. India currently playing a three-match Test series against South Africa at home and has a further packed itinerary until next year.

The Indian team tour after the IPL will hardly get a week off before thier Bangladesh tour for a one-day tri-series also involving Pakistan from June 8-14. After which, India will play in the Asia Cup in Pakistan from June 24-July 6 and then tour Sri Lanka.

As such the BCCI decided to defer the Zimbabwe tour which will now happen sometime later after IPL