The public cricket spectator needs a 'Home' team image, when watching or viewing his favourite sport, not a hotch potch team of dead beat aged misfits thrown together by the lure of excessive pay. These mercenaries should be given the boot from their former employment and not reinstated when the whole sorry mess goes pear shape. However money being the order of things most important, will probably find these prodigals coming home for another feed of the fatted calf.
The big money for small cricket offered by the Indian Premier League has not enticed every international cricketer to sign up. As the eight IPL franchises enter the biggest player auction ever held in Mumbai today, England opener Alastair Cook is adamant that playing for his country means far more than a hefty bank balance.
"We get very well looked after as England players," Cook said in Napier. "When I was 10 years old I didn't dream about playing in an Indian Twenty20 league, I dreamed about playing for England, and I'm very happy with what I'm doing."
Your country needs you: England and Essex opener Alastair Cook
Like most players when the whiff of easy money is scented, England's elite know about the IPL and its illegitimate relation the Indian Cricket League. Yet, Cook reckons the subject has hardly been aired in the dressing-room, allaying fears of a Kerry Packer-style defection of the best players.
"It's not been an issue for England players," he said. "Nothing is bigger than wearing the Three Lions and playing for your country and I can't see anyone giving up playing for England to go and do that."
Saving yourself for the demands of Test and one-day international cricket would seem a sensible move for those at the start of their careers, which is why three Australians, Michael Clarke, Mitchell Johnston and Brad Haddin, the latter heir apparent to the soon-to-be-retired Adam Gilchrist, pulled out of the IPL yesterday.
For well-established players it is different and it is unthinkable that players like Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff have not been sounded out, if not for the impending IPL tournament that starts in April, then certainly for future ones held over the next five years.
At present, every Test-playing country bar England is represented among the 82 players listed on IPL's website. So far, there are 31 Indian players, 11 Aussies including legends like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, 11 South Africans, 10 Sri Lankans, eight from Pakistan, five from New Zealand, three West Indians, two Bangladeshis and a single player from Zimbabwe, Tatenda Taibu. Each is guaranteed around £80,000 just for signing on.
That England is not represented even by recent international players suggests a deal done between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the England and Wales Cricket Board. After all, the English season has been set in stone since the 19th century and IPL's decision to hold their tournament between April 16 and June 1, when the final is played, encroaches on that in a harmful way.
Unlike the ICL, which has seen its overseas players like Chris Read and New Zealand's Shane Bond essentially barred from returning to representative cricket, each country's board has given the IPL their blessing. In return, Lalit Modi, the BCCI's vice-president behind the competition, is adamant that players without a No Objection Certificate from their respective board will not be signed.
For the moment, England players on central contracts would appear to be controlled by the ECB, though for how long once lawyers start filing restraint of trade orders is any one's guess. What seems obvious is that it will become a growing concern unless a window for IPL, convenient to all, opens up in the schedule.
Modi's take on the competition many feel will rent cricket apart, is that it will revolutionise the game, but in a way that benefits all interested parties.
Other interpretations exist: one being that it is an elaborate ruse to get international cricketers to stop complaining about playing too much cricket by proving money's revivifying effect on tired minds and limbs. Another is that it is TV's latest attempt to have a cricket match on screen every hour of every day.
Such saturation coverage can cause viewer overload, something that appears to have happened in Australia where for the first time in 29 years Channel Nine did not broadcast a match it had the rights for.
For IPL and their television paymasters the warning is stark: you can have too much of a good thing.
Last night there were only a dozen people among approx 300 viewing the Aus/Sri Lanka cricket in my local club .
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Vest Has Left the Building
To advise that Vest (Les Bowyer) passed away this morning. Regards, Chris (Son).
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17 comments:
I am sick of cricket too
we have gooten an over dose
with that kind of money
u and I and RM can live like maha rajas and maha ranis
come to India VEST
go
here
India beat Australia batting under lights after losing the toss.
By 6 wkts and 4.5 overs to spare.
Well done Sachin Tendulka, who carried his bat through the whole innings, 117 Not Out*.
Oz prima donna batsmen's sloppy batting and fielding was the main cause. being too cocky was the other.
Well played India.
Tendulkar only scores when there is no tension
he is not reliable
mr vest as an aussie you shud support the aussies not mock them.
Wally
VEST is not an aussie
he is British
one of the few nice guys among britishers
he has been influenced by the beautiful Rosemary
Wally: Like many other Paper Aussies, I can only become a Real Australian when I receive the GOLD CARD for service to Australia during WW2.
It is possible I may even tell them to shove it if offered. if only to retain my dignity and proud British heritage.
But then becoming a real indigenous Oz like your goodself Wally, I would need a bit of time in the solarium.
actually I felt the same watching the match yday...altho I watched the entire match, I felt that Cricket has lost it's novelty...all cos of some childish brats who claim to be world CRICKETERS. HUH!
Aussie or Indian, both the teams wrecked the fun in Cricket from their recent behavior.
Keshi.
I was watching Harbys unique take on mixing with the fans. The Indian spinner turned to spitter six or seven times, it was deliberate because he turned away from the pitch, looked up and spat at us. he was copping a lot of abuse,but spitting is not on in my book. That's a bit out of line.
Andrew Wilson: What are you another OZ saint always right and fair and blind as a frigging Bat. Ever since Wrigleys paid players a stipend to chew their festering Gum, players have had an excuse to spit even at more sensitive times while on camera. best example of this filthy stinking habit is portrayed by that short arsed squint eyed gob spluttering Australian Cricket Captain Rick pong ting, who comes to mind as being a trifle lax with the social graces.
I suggest you have a chat with him on this matter.
lotta racial abuse
lotta spitting
lotta monkeying
we can give
as much as we can take
- Harbachan Singh
I just discovered linkedin
a site to connect with your ex classmates
the downside is that it has given me an inferiority complex
these guys have reached the top of the corporate ladder
and here I am with nothing better to do with my time than heckling Keshi
INDIA BEAT THE UGLY AUSSIES.
Vest; The English Gentleman, Congratulates the Indian cricketers. Well Done!!! You have made my day.
This will cause much gnashing of teeth and possible suicides
among 'Can't hack losing Aussies'
Expect "Sack Ponting" reports from Oz cricket journo's.
its only a game Wally
a silly game I may add
I am a football fan
I went to my first Muslim birthday party yesterday !
Musical chairs was a bit slow... but
f#!k me, pass the parcel was fast!
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