MUMBAI: Even as some worthies within the world’s richest and most powerful cricket board throw around possible windows to hold the remainder of the Indian Premier League, seemingly without considering the international itinerary’s in other countries, comes the first pushback from their counterparts in England.
One possible window for the postponed IPL is before the T20 World Cup in October, when England are due to tour Bangladesh and Pakistan. And the England and Wales Cricket Board has made it clear that the ECB expects its players to be available if there is a clash with the rescheduled IPL.
SportzPower would expect other cricket boards to offer similar “reality checks” if push came to shove on carving out an international window to complete the 31 games remaining to be played after the indefinite suspension of the IPL following multiple cases of COVID-19.
“We’re planning on the involvement of England players in England matches. We’ve got a full FTP schedule. So if those tours to Pakistan and Bangladesh [in September and October] are going ahead, I’d expect the players to be there,” Ashley Giles, managing director, Men’s Cricket, has told British media.
“The New Zealand scenario was very different. Those Test matches were formalised at the end of January, by which time all those contracts and NOCs [no objection certificates] were signed for full involvement in the IPL,” he said further.
“None of us knows what a rearranged IPL looks like at the moment; where it’s going to be or when. But from when we start this summer against New Zealand, our programme is incredibly busy. We’ve got a lot of important, high-profile cricket including the T20 World Cup and the Ashes. And we’re going to have to look after our players.”
England are expected to tour Bangladesh in September immediately after hosing India in a five-Test series and then they travel to Pakistan in mid-October.
They play the T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in October-November, after that and then travel to Australia for Ashes that begins on December 8.
They then have a limited overs series in West Indies just after Ashes in January and they follow it up with a limited-overs series which means they are tied up till the next IPL.
