England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) managing director Ashley Giles has credited the India Premier League (IPL) for England’s tremendous success over the years in white-ball cricket.
He was elated with the fact that England cricketers are in high demand in the world’s biggest T20 tournament while claiming the English cricket has been extremely benefited by the IPL. The former cricketer also said IPL is a big reason behind England’s number one rank in both white-ball formats.
Giles told Sky Sports’ ‘The Hussain and Key Cricket Show’: “In my briefings with the players, I have encouraged players to think very carefully about what their programmes are. I have not directed them. We aren’t forcing either way. The IPL isn’t going anywhere. It has extreme benefits to us. From this group here, I think, we have 12 of the 16 players going to the IPL.”
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The ECB Director further noted, “Years ago we found it very difficult for players to get into the IPL to experience that tournament. Now all of our players are in high demand and it’s probably the big reason why we are number one in the world in both white-ball formats.”
There are 12 England cricketers, including Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Dawid Malan, Moeen Ali, Sam, and Tom Curran who have the IPL 2021 deals and Giles said ECB has allowed them to play in the IPL 14 at the expense of England’s opening Test of two-match Test series against New Zealand on June 2.
He further explained the decision, “We have agreed for players to go to the IPL. Those two Test matches were arranged late, they didn’t form part of the original schedule. We had agreed with the players and with the IPL that the players would be available right through the tournament and if they got to the later stages, they would be able to participate.
We haven’t reneged on that and I don’t think we should. We should stick to that, from a contractual point of view as much as anything.”
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Giles also defended England’s much-criticized rotation policy by saying: “We’re trying to find a balance and get to a place where we can have sustainable success. We have two really important strategic objectives that we’re heading towards at the end of the year: the T20 World Cup and the Ashes.
He added, “We’ve still got a lot left in us; we want to hold both white-ball trophies – that would be a fantastic effort for this team – and we want to win the Ashes back in Australia. We want to get to the Ashes and T20 World Cup with fit people – mentally and physically – and our biggest concern was, given the workloads, the schedule, that unless we were really proactive we wouldn’t be able to do that.
The managing director signed off by saying, “I still think very much we can go to Australia and challenge. That’s still a big target of ours, and we know how tough that will be.”
(With PTI Inputs)
