Delivering a keynote speech in London earlier this week, Botham said the IPL was ‘too powerful’ for cricket’s long-term good.
But Sanjay Patel, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said that Botham was in no position to take the moral high ground after his involvement in disgraced Texas financier Allen Stanford’s ill-fated T20 competition between the West Indies and England.
“I can still visualise the photo of Botham sitting in the front when Stanford went to England — and he has the temerity to talk about IPL,” Patel told the Press Trust of India news agency.
“We don’t want his advice. We have enough top players like [former Indian players] Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Kapil Dev and Rahul Dravid to advise us.”
Lack of IPL hurting England: Akram
Not playing the IPL is the reason behind England’s struggles in the shorter formats, said former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram.
England were thumped 4-1 in Australia in their ODI series at the beginning of the year and also lost recent series at home against Sri Lanka and India.
“Australia, India and South Africa play all year around in the shorter formats,” said Akram. “All these players play in the IPL as well. That has helped their cause. England used to have a few players in the IPL, but even that has stopped. That is the reason why they are struggling big time in the shorter formats.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 6th, 2014.
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