Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

Wasim Akram, former Pakistan bowling great, has warned that the Indian Premier League (IPL) could seriously damage international cricket if the game’s governing body fails to intervene.

The lucrative IPL, which starts from Thursday, has already stirred controversy with high profile players willing to retire to feature in the multi-million dollar tournament.

“I fear the IPL can be a serious distraction and destruction if the International Cricket Council (ICC) doesn’t intervene because it involves huge money and players are ready to abandon international cricket,” Akram told AFP.

“The new ICC chief executive seems a level-headed man and I hope he finds a solution.”

The Twenty20 competition, promoted by the Indian cricket board and featuring stars from around the world, features eight teams bought by franchises which selected their players via auction last month.

The tournament marks the first time that international cricketers will put aside national allegiances to play for privately-owned and city-based teams.

“The ICC should have foreseen the danger 10 years ago because the ICC and cricket boards of countries earn billions of dollars with players getting a small percentage, so such a thing was bound to happen,” Akram said.

“Had players been paid properly by the ICC and the boards they would not have joined such leagues. Now there has come a stage where players are willing to opt out of international cricket, which is dangerous.”

One-dayers in danger

Akram, who played 104 Tests and 356 one-day matches during an illustrious career for Pakistan, said he hoped Haroon Lorgat, new ICC chief who will replace Malcolm Speed in June, would handle the problem.

“The new ICC chief executive seems a level-headed man and I hope he finds a solution,” Akram said.

The Pakistani great also said that huge interest in Twenty20 was a potential danger for 50-over one-day cricket.

“Test cricket will stay on as it is but I think the ICC will have to find some ways to keep the 50-over interest alive,” said Akram who holds the world record of most one-day wickets with 502.

“Overs 20 to 40 are starting to prove boring for fans - even I would not watch the middle overs if players like Adam Gilchrist, Sanath Jayasuriya and Shahid Afridi aren’t batting,” he said.

Akram further criticised the IPL authorities for their strict media guidelines, which have forced international agencies to boycott the event.

“In a culture like ours no event can get off without media coverage,” Akram said.

“I see these restrictions as odd, unwise and hope they relent because people want to see pictures and coverage in print.”

The Queensland and Australia all-rounder James Hopes flew out this morning for his 44-day odyssey in the IPL, for which he will receive a sum of $324,000 or $7363 per day. Hopes will play for the Kings XI Punjab, linking with fellow Australians Brett Lee, Simon Katich, Luke Pomersbach and Shaun Marsh in the controversial Twenty20 feast - reports Brisbane Times

Also in the sheds will be Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara, Kiwi quick Kyle Mills, Indian swing bowler Irfan Pathan and the team’s captain Yuvraj Singh.

While Hopes, known as “Catfish”, was upbeat about the IPL’s prospects of becoming a meaningful part of the cricketing calendar, he was less certain of the exact location of his new home for the next six weeks.

“I think it is in the middle (of the country). Towards the top of the middle. It’s not right up the top but it’s in the top half,” Hopes said.

The devil may be in the detail for the likeable Hopes, but don’t tell him he’s just chasing the money with his IPL jaunt.

The 29-year-old firmly believes the IPL can dramatically revamp a tired international schedule jammed with irrelevant one-day contests.

But he cautioned the cricketing public against demanding too much too soon from the cashed-up spectacle, which has divided the cricketing world and threatens to replicate football’s constant squabbling over club versus country.

“It can work but I think the public are kidding themselves if they think it’s all going to go flawlessly in the first couple of years,” Hopes said.

“It’s something that has been thrown together, in a way, and it will be good. In the first year there will be teething problems. But that’s the same of any tournament. And I think you will see the benefits of this within two or three years time.”

Hopes urged governing bodies to find a stand-alone slot for the tournament each year to ensure the IPL became a meaningful contributor to the game, rather than a source of friction between rival boards.

“Everyone’s talking about how it could damage international cricket - I think it could bring it back. You go over, you do this then you hook up with the national team again. It’s not just another one-day series,” Hopes said.

“It could give international cricket a much-needed break in the schedule. You know you’ll get six or eight weeks off where there is no international cricket and guys are going to be playing the Twenty20 tournament - added Brisbane Times.

IPL will really usher in a new horizon for not only Indian Cricket but also International Cricket and will sure inject fresh life into the Game we call Cricket.

Apart from a handful of players from Pakistan and Sri Lanka ( eleven from each countries) and eight from South Africa, one each from England, Zimbabwe many foreign stars are being forced to drop out due to injuries and Test commitments.

Also Australians and New Zealanders will only make a two-week appearance in the 44-day, 59-match multi-billion dollar Twenty20 extravaganza starting on April 18.

The West Indians will be absent for the last stage, including the final on June 1, and only a bit of arm-twisting from worried hosts prevented Pakistanis and Sri Lankans from missing a share of the pie.

The tournament created a frenzy after corporate bosses and movie stars, who own eight city teams, signed the world’s best players for massive sums at an unprecedented auction in February.

But the International Cricket Council’s refusal to create a window for the IPL in the overcrowded calendar has left players short-changed and fans disappointed.

IPL rules stipulate cricketers will be paid only for the matches they play, which means Australian Andrew Symonds will earn a fraction of the $1,35-million (around R10-million) bid on him by the Hyderabad team.

Symonds and his Test colleagues - captain Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Simon Katich and Brett Lee - are needed back home by May 1 for a training camp ahead of the West Indies tour.

It makes them available for only four of the teams’ 14 league matches each, hitting their fees badly.

Lee was bought by film actress Preity Zinta’s Mohali team for $900 000, while Ponting, Hussey and Katich were in the $200 000-400 000 range.

The Australians would have missed the entire first season of the IPL if their scheduled Test and one-day tour of Pakistan had not been postponed for security reasons.

Five New Zealanders - captain Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram, Ross Taylor and Kyle Mills - are lucky they are playing even four matches.

New Zealand Cricket allowed the five to miss their team’s opening two first-class matches of their upcoming England tour so they could take part in the IPL until May 1.

McCullum, the dashing wicketkeeper-batsman, stood to lose the most among his team-mates after being signed for $700 000 by movie star Shahrukh Khan’s Kolkata franchise.

He can now hope to pick up $8 500 at the most.

Three West Indians, skipper Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, must get home ahead of the first Test against Australia in Jamaica from May 22.

Left-hander Gayle, who has a $800 000 contract with Khan’s Kolkata, said last week he was yet to decide about taking part in the Australia series.

Sri Lankan and Pakistani players must have said a silent prayer after their proposed one-day series in April-end was put off indefinitely, reportedly at the behest of the Indian cricket board.

Australian Nathan Bracken and Lasith Malinga of Sri Lanka, who had no Test commitments during the IPL, may miss the entire tournament due to knee injuries.

Any meaningful foreign participation in what is essentially an Indian domestic competition will be confined to 11 Pakistanis, as many Sri Lankans, eight South Africans and one player each from England and Zimbabwe.

Lalit Modi insists Test commitments will always take preference over the league, but fans are not impressed. The Sponsors will sure save money but maybe at the cost of real excitement for fans…

Leg-spin great Shane Warne on Friday said the International
Cricket Council should ensure that the world’s top players who got
signed up with the Indian Premier League play in the “revolutionary”
Twenty20 venture.

Talking to newspersons after the official launch of
the Jaipur franchisee team Rajasthan Royals, Warne rubbished the notion
that IPL would have negative influence in international cricket.

“It is a new and revolutionary concept and if ICC
uses a little common sense it can co-exist with international cricket,”
he said.

“ICC should accommodate IPL in the international
calendar and ensure that best players of the cricketing world play in
it. It would make the IPL more colourful and competitive,” Warne, who
would be the captain-cum-coach of the team said.

The Australian, who has 708 Test wickets in his
kitty, felt IPL would do a lot of good to the young cricketers instead
of having negative effect on them.

“They are getting the money and also chance to
play along with great players of the world.” Warne would not also agree
that spinners have little role to play in the shortest version of
cricket.

“Though Twenty20 is called batsman’s game, bowlers
can turn it around. Yes, spinners will be hit but often we saw good
performance by them too. They have evolved and I feel they certainly
have a big role in this format of cricket too,” said Warne.