14 February 2008

Ponting wants gap for IPL

Ricky Ponting today said there is a risk players may be lost to international cricket in favor of the IPL unless a space is cleared in the international calendar. With the huge money on offer, I can understand his point. It is much easier said than done however. The international cricket calendar is already so heavily packed that players have been complaining of burnout for years. Under the current system I can't see how any more space can be cleared unless the Future Tours Programme is expanded from five years to six.

1 comment:

Ed said...

I agree making the future tours programme 6 years is the only way to tackle this, but even if space is made in the calendar for the IPL, the problem is that the players will need to take rests during the year, if not every year then perhaps every other or even once every 3, and the last one they'll want to miss is the IPL tournament given how much money they can make.

It could well devalue international tournaments if players would prefer to play in the IPL than for their country. Personally I think that's incredibly shallow of the players - putting money ahead of country (although I do appreciate it must be tempting!) but I assume that's what'll happen....