A number of England cricketers like Eoin Morgan, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and others are all set to play the upcoming season of Indian Premier League (IPL) and will miss the first Test against New Zealand starting June 2 at Lord’s.
However, their decision to prioritize the IPL over playing for their national time has once again started the debate and now former England captain Michael Vaughan feels that one giving precedence to the cash-rich league over playing for England should say goodbye.
“England are being paranoid if they think their players will turn down a central contract to play in the IPL. Ashley Giles told my show on the BBC this week that England do not want to go ‘toe-to-toe’ with players over the IPL because in the long run ‘we may face losing some of our best players’,” Vaughan wrote in his column for The Telegraph.
“I think that is a wrong message to be sending. If an England player came to me aged 26 or 27 and said he was choosing the IPL and franchise cricket over an England deal my response would be simple, ‘Go on then, see you later, goodbye, but I tell you what, I bet you come knocking back on my door in a year or two’s time’,” he added.
“If England really want to make sure it does not happen then why not offer their best players two or three year central contracts? High-level sport is about looking after the best individuals so give Ben Stokes or Jofra Archer more than a one-year contract. That way you are tying them down. Instead they have 12-month deals,” Vaughan stated.
Earlier, former England captain Geoffrey Boycott had also said that the ECB should dock money from player salaries if they want to go home on a break from national duty.
He said that England’s players would never take a break from playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and so they should not be allowed to do the same while serving the national team.
“England messed up with a rotation policy in India and must stop treating players in a namby-pamby way. If players want to go home for a break from England duty, dock their money. Better still, don’t select them unless they can agree to be available for a whole series,” wrote Boycott in The Daily Telegraph.
On the other hand, England head coach Chris Silverwood had said that it was hard to tell players not to play in the IPL.
“It is very difficult to say to the players that ‘no, you can’t play IPL’. You can’t say no if you just see the numbers. IPL is a marquee cricket event in the T20 world and so it’s difficult,” Silverwood had said.
However, Boycott said that players owe the national team.