ECB tries to keep players away from IPL

London—The chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has flown out to New Zealand in a bid to stop star England players from joining the Indian Premier League (IPL).
ECB Chairman Giles Clarke flew out to Hamilton, New Zealand, after IPL chief Lalit Modi revealed at the weekend that a majority of the England players “have been in touch with” the billion-dollar IPL. Clarke will outline alternative financial proposals to compensate England cricketers who are unable to join the highly lucrative IPL because the domestic county season beginning April clashes with the schedule of the Twenty20 tournament in India. While the participation of England players is not a possibility this year, Modi said he would have to accommodate them next year.
Among proposals Clarke is reported to be considering is an offer by Texas-born Antigua businessman Sir Allen Stanford, whose own Stanford Twenty20 Championship - an all-Caribbean competition - has just completed its first year in Antigua. Stanford, who was awarded knighthood and citizenship by the government of Antigua and Barbuda, has promised 130 million pounds to cash-strapped West Indies cricket over five years. Clarke is said to be sufficiently “intrigued” by Standford’s offer and the Guardian newspaper indicated the ECB chairman would meet England players in Hamilton to outline proposals intended to compensate them for not joining the IPL.
A number of front-ranking England players, interviewed by the national media recently, have rejected the IPL but star all-rounder Kevin Pietersen did acknowledge last week that there had been both “interest” in the IPL as well as “offers made” from the League.
England, which is where Twenty20 cricket began, is thought to be one of the better teams in this form of the game, having incorporated it into the domestic schedule much before any other country - and many England players would be natural choices for the IPL. According to reports, however, Clarke has two options and India does not appear to figure in them. One is to stage more Twenty20 internationals during the English summer, with additional bonuses for players. The other is to take up the Stanford offer.
Stanford first made a 5 million-pound offer to stage a West Indies-South Africa match last year, but the West Indies board blocked it. He then doubled the offer and approached the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which turned it down saying it could not endorse a privately-sponsored tournament.
He has now doubled it once again to $20 million for an England or Australia match, saying: “You get England or Australia to come down and play our little eight or nine million population collective group of islands, let me take our best players from those islands and play you right here for $20 million and we will see who wins.” “If enough players in England, Australia or India know that they have a chance to come down here to the Caribbean, spend a couple of days, play one match and walk away with a million dollars each in their pockets, I think it would happen,” he said last month. “In fact, I think it’s absolutely certain to happen next year,” he added. —Agencies