Giles Clarke, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), said on Monday he couldn’t see how the likes of leading England cricketers such as Kevin Pietersen would be allowed to play in the 2009 Indian Premier League
LONDON: Giles Clarke, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), said on Monday he couldn’t see how the likes of leading England cricketers such as Kevin Pietersen would be allowed to play in the 2009 Indian Premier League (IPL) and so risk injury ahead of the next Ashes series.
“For a centrally-contracted player, I can’t see Peter Moores (England coach) wishing to release them,” Clarke told reporters at Lord’s. “The risks are very significant — we will be about to play Australia. Just what would you gentlemen (the media) write if Peter Moores released an England player to play in the IPL and couldn’t play all summer?”
The inaugural IPL gets underway on April 18 and so clashes with the start of both England’s domestic and home international seasons. Star batsman Pietersen had said last week, “You want your best players playing both for their country and for the IPL. You don’t want them choosing between the two. It’s silly to think that you’re losing up to a million (US dollars) over six weeks. The schedules have to be sorted because England players are the only ones missing out.”
At present the only England player involved in the IPL is all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas, a Hampshire colleague of Pietersen, who has played Twenty20 and ODIs but not Test matches. England are touring the West Indies in February, earlier than they would normally visit the Caribbean.
The reason is to give their key players, most of whom are centrally contracted to the ECB, more of a break before the Australia series gets underway in June.
And Clarke wants England, thrashed 5-0 in Australia by their oldest foes in the 2006-07 Ashes, to do all they can to triumph in the series that matters most to their fans. “The West Indies tour is earlier next year because we’d like to give the players a break before the Ashes series,” Clarke said.
“We don’t want them turning up for the Ashes series exhausted. The reason we have England central contracts is to enable the national head coach to determine how much cricket those players play. I don’t think KP (Pietersen) is doing that badly. KP knows me quite well and he hasn’t said anything (about the IPL) and he’s not exactly shy."
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