The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : PCA warns ECB of a players’ revolt

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PCA warns ECB of a players’ revolt

London: England’s Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) has lashed out at the ECB for not allowing Michael Vaughan and Co. to participate in the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), saying the “ridiculous” move may trigger a players’ revolt.

England and Wales Cricket Board Chairman Giles Clarke has stated that English players will not be allowed to take part in the league as the ECB does not want to risk injury or fatigue to any of its contracted cricketers.

Concentrating on Ashes

“We don’t want them turning up exhausted. The spectators of this country want to know that our players are as fit and as sharp and ready for the Australia series as we can ensure that they are,” he said on Monday referring to the 2009 Ashes series and ruling out the possibility of England players participating in the next edition of IPL.

Clarke’s comments have outraged the PCA which said the ECB would be fighting a losing battle if it tried to come in the way of, what is essentially a good earning opportunity for its cricketers.

“It is human nature that they want to play in the IPL. You can’t fight the market. The cricket market has had a significant amount of money going into it and we should be looking to capitalise and develop it, not be King Canute,” PCA Chief Executive Sean Morris was quoted as saying in The Daily Telegraph.

“I can’t see how that is sensible tactics at a time when, if the players get frustrated or unhappy then, for the first time, they have an alternative involving a significant amount of money,” he added.

Only one English player, all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas, has signed up for IPL that too because he is not a centrally contracted player with the ECB and therefore does not require the Board’s permission to play in the Twenty20 league.

Dashing batsman Kevin Pietersen has also expressed his desire to play in the league but the ECB snub to IPL may deny him the opportunity.

Morris warned that if the ECB did not back down from its current stand then an ugly conflict with the players was just waiting to happen. “What you don’t want at this time is friction between the England players and their employers,” Morris said. — PTI

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