ECB makes plea to BCCI for an IPL Window

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/current/story/628949.html


Collier reveals here he has made a plea to BCCI to accomodate English season from conflicting with IPL.

good and bad.

good-- for English players who will not be left out due to socialist stubbornness of their board.
Watch out for the MEGA auctions next year and mark the prices I have put against about 15 English players that will be attractive to the IPL market.

bad---last bastion of resitance/ check-n-balance to BCCI and mindless commercialization of cricket....and the berarer of the flag of Test cricket over T20 has fallen.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/current/story/628949.html

I don't think "the berarer of the flag of Test cricket over T20 has fallen" is quite fair, and overall I do think it's a good thing. Like it or not, the IPL is here to stay and I think is a great spectacle (though they should definitely import the flashing stumps they were using in the Big Bash this year, though those were great ). I'll watch it to see Steyn bowling to Warner, or whatever, I think it's great viewing, and giving it a separate window would IMO be a good thing. Having players like KP, Hales, Wright, Swann, Finn, etc. available can only improve it.

While you call it "socialist stubbornness of their board" there is a decent justification for England's players not being involved in that playing Test cricket in England in early May is a lot different to T20 in India in April. Of course, whether facing the likes of Steyn even in a T20 and in favourable conditions is better preparation than facing some pretty average 75 mph swing bowlers in tough conditions in the County Championship is an interesting debate, but maybe for another time...

IPL can never prepare for a test match in English conditions.

However what ECB is requesting for is finish of IPL before the start of English FC season.
So the English players will prepare in their FC season for the tests ahead.
The caveat though is that BCCI will never agree to bring IPL so far forward as ECB has asked for.
Because IPL is aimed for the slot when it's summer vacations, schools are closed and it's too hot to enage in most other form of entertainment.

So ECB's best case scenario would be to shcedule tests 2 weeks or so after the IPL...*nd hope the English contingent at IPL will come back and acclimitize in 2 weeks

ECB know they won't get that, but if they get the IPL moved forward even a couple of weeks it would allow their star players to play in it (at least partly) and still have time to acclimitise properly before the summer tests.

Of course the Pakistani players are also excluded from the IPL, which IMHO is nothing short of disgraceful, but I'm not sure I want to go there...

Mad for Chelsea wrote:ECB know they won't get that, but if they get the IPL moved forward even a couple of weeks it would allow their star players to play in it (at least partly) and still have time to acclimitise properly before the summer tests.

Of course the Pakistani players are also excluded from the IPL, which IMHO is nothing short of disgraceful, but I'm not sure I want to go there...

i don't think Pakistanis feel it's disgraceful for them.
Just the poitics between nations...that in an "ideal" world should not override sports....but in the "real" world is the driver for all power and money games.....
Power and Money is two of the BIG things that IPL stands for

The core issue is here......Eng players are seeking true $$ value for their skills and efforts......and now ECB wants IPL to pay the "addtional value" part to the English players...and at the same time turn IPL's schedule around to suit ECB's convenience.

The talks come in the context of the ECB re-negotiating the value of central contracts with England players. The players' union, the Professional Cricketers' Association, is requesting substantial pay increases to compensate its members for their non-appearance, or at best fleeting appearance, in the IPL, and have argued that Australian players earn far more from their Board and have more opportunity to appear in T20 leagues such as the IPL and Big Bash.

As a consequence, the ECB, eager not to raise the value of the contracts above sustainable levels, are seeking other ways to allow its players to supplement their incomes. Collier's India discussions have perhaps carried most importance in openly displaying a willingness to negotiate a better deal for England's players as they make their impatience clear about their exclusion from such a high-profile tournament.

http://www.wisdenindia.com/cricket-blog/men-behaving-boys-ecbs-cheek/58028

wisden india's analysis of the issue


Now, the ECB is so concerned about the fact that the IPL is being played in peak summer that it has requested the BCCI, in all sincerity and without any ulterior motives of course, that the tournament be started earlier than it is now so that the final is gone through by the end of April. “In an ideal world, we would like the IPL to be concluded by April 30, which is the cooler season for India,” David Collier, the ECB chief executive, has been quoted extensively as saying. “We have put that to them, they are doing their best, but they realise there are some limitations.”

ECB’s altruism might be hard to understand in isolation, but of course, its motives aren’t merely dictated by the fact that players have to ply their wares in unfavourable climatic conditions. It would serve ECB just fine if the IPL were to begin in March and end by April so that it could allow its players to partake of the lucrative IPL pie.

“It would make things a lot easier for us. We still have to get the workload balance right, but it would make it a lot easier for our players to be available for that period and certainly the BCCI are fully aware of that,” Collier told The Times of London. “There is a willingness on the part of both boards to see if we can make any progress.” Ah, now we are talking.

There is a not-so-quiet revolt brewing in England, with several cricketers led by Matt Prior openly questioning the ECB’s policy of not making its centrally contracted players available for the duration of the IPL. By steadfastly denying its players the opportunity to make mega bucks of the sort even relatively unknown Australians and South Africans are raking in, the ECB has pushed itself into a corner and has now woken up to the possibility that unless it changes its hard-nosed stance, the Kevin Pietersen episode of last year might not be an isolated incident.


Matt Prior has openly expressed displeasure over ECB's stance on the IPL. © Getty Images

In order that its schedules are not compromised, and in order that it can stick to its supposedly unwavering attitude, the ECB wants the BCCI to reschedule not just its premier limited-overs domestic tournament – which is what the IPL is – but also its entire domestic season. Let’s get this straight – the ECB wants the BCCI to make sweeping, wholesale changes to the Indian domestic calendar so that English players can participate in the IPL, assuming of course that franchise owners want to buy them. Imagine the outrage if the BCCI were to ask the ECB to restructure its own county championship, or the 40-over tournament, or indeed its Twenty20 competition, so that it can be beneficial to Indian cricketers. Imagine, indeed.

That there is growing unrest among English players, and that the Professional Cricketers’ Association is all set to put pressure on the ECB on the IPL issue – ‘Allow the players to play the IPL in its entirety or compensate them substantially for not allowing them to travel to India’ is set to be the PCA stance – when the central contracts come up for re-negotiation in the near future is hardly a secret. Collier’s comments, and the ECB’s missive to the BCCI, must be viewed against, and only against, this backdrop.

The BCCI’s financial clout has often been used as the stick with which to beat it, when it comes to all issues contentious in international cricket, and especially when it comes to the DRS. It is, therefore, little short of ironic that the ECB must appeal to the BCCI to rework its schedules so that some of India’s financial resources wend their way into the bank account of English cricketers. The ECB is either incapable of, or unwilling to, part with its own finances, therefore it wants the BCCI to bail it out so that it can appease its increasingly disgruntled employees. How’s that for expediency?

and simon hughes makes an alternatrive suggestion...push the start of Eng season back by a month...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/counties/9983054/English-talent-deserve-more-opportunity-to-play-in-Indian-Premier-League.html

There probably will not be much play for a couple of days, which will lead players such as Durham captain Paul Collingwood to gaze enviously at the Indian Premier League on ITV4

But, like county cricket in its 1980s heyday, the IPL is a hotbed of international talent. In 1980s England, you shared dressing rooms with all-time greats such as, in my case, Jeff Thomson, Desmond Haynes and Ian Botham, and looked forward to challenging yourself against (or strategically avoiding) players such as Viv Richards, Imran Khan, Malcolm Marshall or Allan Donald. Dull days were soon forgotten if you were thrust in as nightwatchman at Bristol to face Courtney Walsh and David ‘Hissing Syd’ Lawrence.

Such exhilaration is found only in India now, encapsulated by a super over in Hyderabad on Sunday that pitted the world’s most destructive batsman in Gayle against its No1 bowler, Dale Steyn. In the most compelling duel you are likely to see this year, one man tore in, eyes nearly popping out of his head with commitment, to an Incredible Hulk seeking 20 to win and bent on depositing his opponent into the crowd. That Gayle only managed it once and fell short of his target is testament to Steyn’s ability and self-belief.

The shame of it all is that, with Pietersen injured, only Eoin Morgan from these shores has so far featured either on or off the field. The IPL is littered with Australians, South Africans, Sri Lankans and West Indians, both players and coaches, but because of the championship’s early start, almost no Englishman can get a gig. Owais Shah, Luke Wright and Dimitri Mascarenhas, all of whom secured a release from sympathetic county employers, at least wait patiently in the wings.

Modern reputations are made at this extravaganza and many more English players and coaches should be involved. They have so much to offer.

But how? The solution is to move the county season back a month. No one wants four-day matches in early April – not players, groundsmen nor spectators. The season could easily extend to late September. But that is unlikely to happen with an infrastructure that moves slower than a tectonic plate. Instead, at this time of year, English players sheltering around dressing-room TVs will continue to look on and lament.

I really doubt that the IPL is going to move anywhere....the BCCI have a product that is working just fine. If any concessions are going to be made, they will have to be made by county cricket and England's international fixtures for May.

I agree with Simon Hughes. Start county cricket in May, and England's international fixtures in the last week of May, or something like that.