Bindra warns England players

NEW DELHI—England players have been warned by the Indian Premier League (IPL) not to take drastic measures in order to take part in the competition which starts later this week.
The players centrally contracted by the ECB have not been allowed to participate in the IPL, and IS Bindra, a member of the IPL’s governing council, and the ICC’s principal advisor-in-waiting, indicated they would not be in favour of players rejecting their England contracts to play in the IPL. “That solution is not acceptable to us,” Bindra told BBC Sport. “We will not have any player revolting against their establishment and becoming part of the IPL.”
Bindra’s comments come at a time when England’s players have expressed their desire to take part in the league at some stage, including England’s Test captain Michael Vaughan and batsman Kevin Pietersen.
“I’ve heard so many people say that all the best players are in the world are there and you want to go and play in it,” Vaughan said. “So I think we’re all naive if we don’t think that England players are going to end up playing in the IPL.” Dougie Brown, the chairman of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, had also suggested the majority of England’s leading Test players might be lost to the Indian Premier League if the ECB doesn’t compromise on its current stand.
Bindra said the IPL will try to reach a solution with the England board, whose chief Giles Clarke has clearly stated that centrally-contracted players will be allowed to take part in the IPL. “We don’t want to be a rebel league, we want to be part of the system with the support of the ECB,” Bindra said. “We are looking forward to meeting Giles Clarke and other members of the ECB during the inauguration in Bangalore.”
At present, the only English player participating in the IPL is Dimitri Mascarenhas, who’s not contracted by the board. Bindra indicated the IPL could tweak its schedule in order to fit in England players, and was hoping that there would be a place for the league in the international calendar. “We can make adjustments, we can postpone our league by a couple of weeks,” he said. “If we can find a solution, it will be in the interests of everyone involved, including the players.
“The ICC have said they will try and find if they can find a permanent slot for the IPL. That will make it a lot easier for the players to know what the calendar is, what the options are. It will facilitate everyone going forward.”
He said the IPL would love to have players such as Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff in its ranks. “People in India love icon players, and they are certainly among the best eight or ten players in the world,” he said. “We would love to see them as part of the league. Other than the English players, we have all 70 to 80 of the top ICC-ranked players.”
Bindra also hailed the ECB’s idea to start an English Premier League, an English version of the IPL. “It’s a good news and I think it would be great if all the countries start their own Twenty20 league,” he told reporters in Delhi. “Before we launched the IPL and the Champions League, the idea was to have separate league in each country.
Now that England is planning one, I think this would make the Champions League [scheduled for October] more interesting and competitive,” he said.—Agencies