The Indian Premier League is all set to welcome 2 new additional teams in the tournament’s upcoming season. As a result, the cash-rich league will now stage more fixtures, extending the tournament’s time duration and increasing player involvement. Former England skipper Michael Atherton has expressed his worries about the scenario.
The IPL is being analyzed in consideration of Team India’s progress in the current T20 World Cup 2021. Furthermore, Atherton believes that the league’s expansion will have an influence on the progress of Test cricket. He also discussed the commercial sides of it, stating that if the market is kept uncontrolled, cricketers would follow the money, which will damage the game’s fundamentals.
Cricketers will follow the money: Atherton
Atherton said that – “There will be adverse knock-on effects. The calendar cannot contain the competing demands of international and franchise cricket as it is now, with a two-month window allotted for the IPL. India will want a longer window and, who knows, maybe the owners will eventually want a second station carved out of the schedule”.
He also added that – “Cricketers will follow the money. If the market is left unchecked, and the least profitable aspects of the game will suffer — notably Test cricket among countries with small television markets. Relations between the players and their principal employers will fray. Some, like New Zealand, have simply accepted reality and allow their players’ absolute freedom to pick and choose,”
Atherton also addressed the scheduling concerns that emerge with the growing IPL. A few England players have already attributed the cancellation of the 5th test involving India and England to the IPL’s UAE edition. The former England player brings out the fact that two crucial English players lost the T20 World Cup due to injuries sustained during the IPL.
He has concluded by saying – “England are missing two centrally contracted players in this World Cup who were injured in the IPL — an extraordinary state of affairs when you think about it. An imbalance of revenues and the intense gravitational pull of IPL puts stress on a game ill-equipped to withstand it. The advance of the IPL, and its satellite tournaments, will be hard to stop. But the sport that exists only to create a return for investors will lose the precious elements that hinder rather than help the bottom line,”
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