Carl Hooper sees IPL as ‘one of the biggest threats to cricket’

Cricket is facing a lot of dangers at the moment, and Carl Hooper has termed Indian Premier League (IPL) as one of them. The former West Indian skipper is not reluctant to declare Indian T20 league as one of the biggest threats, the game is facing these
days.

"One of the biggest threats facing cricket is the IPL," Hooper told ‘The Advertiser’.

Referring to the situation in West Indies, he described that the Board should quickly give central contracts to the players, who are being lured by the cash-rich league. The Caribbean Kings have recently won the World T20 – the team’s first major trophy
in 33 years.

Many West Indians players such as Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo and Sunil Narine are part of the IPL. Gayle was in conflict with the board due the IPL. Moreover, Bravo and Narine missed their Test duty just to ensure their participation in
the league.

"The spectators want to see the best players. If I looked up and saw no Gayle or key players named to play I would just say forget about it, stay home. They have to figure out a way to get our key players contracted," said Hooper.

He continued: "If Narine has a central contract that would mean he would have to play for the West Indies. We want to have our best cricketers playing each and every time we take the park. I am old fashioned, I believe in Test cricket. If you have a solid
base in Test cricket you can adjust your game to suit any other format."

The West Indian players usually prefer their IPL outfits to the local sides, when it comes to play the Champions League. A few cricket pundits believe that IPL is helping the player enhance their skills, but Hooper and many others have some serious concerns
over the league.

ICC is already considering the option of adjusting IPL in the international schedule. The league has many supporters as well, and everyone will have to wait and see how it works for international and particularly Indian cricket in the coming years.

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Oct 10 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry