IPL: Poll on Current England players throws up a shock!

Half of English team willing to retire for IPL


Half of the cricketers in the current English team are ready to give up their international careers for the six-figure salaries on offer at the Indian Premier League [Images], a survey has revealed.

In an annual poll of the 16 current players, conducted by the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA), eight said they are happy to cut short their national careers and play in the multi-million-dollar Twenty20 league in India.

PCA chairman Dougie Brown described the findings as "extremely worrying" but felt the England and Wales Cricket Board's refusal to allow players to participate in league is actually to be blamed for such attitude.

"You can't blame the England players for thinking that way. We're all in the game for a short period of time, and those people who spend a lot of time travelling the globe must find the idea of the IPL very appealing," he was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph.

"These guys will be faced with the choice of spending 300 days away a year, or going to India for six weeks, and getting paid the same if not more money. There will be a fair bit of pressure coming from the family," he added.

No English player, except for Dimitri Mascarenhas, participated in this year's IPL but the number is expected to increase in the next edition with top stars like Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff tipped to join the league.

Whatever happened to the age old playing for the country line. Looks like when it comes down to it, most international players are only interested in money and nothing more if they could have things their way.

Of more concern is the ripples that the IPL has set. I was afraid initially that IPL like FTP would be a treality soon and test cricket would die a death in India. But looks like test cricket all over and world cricket as a whole will be killed by the BCCI moneylords and the day is not far when cricket boards will struggle to find 11 players available to play some test cricket.....

Already a thread on this.

Also explaining why these stats are skewed.

They interviewed 344 county pro's and asked them the question.

How that then evolves into 'half of the england team' is beyond me?

I quite like mollywhopping, obviously being the mollywhopper.

Batman wrote:Half of English team willing to retire for IPL


In an annual poll of the 16 current players, conducted by the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA), eight said they are happy to cut short their national careers and play in the multi-million-dollar Twenty20 league in India.

interesting. anyone want to guess who the eight are? kp's pretty much certain. flintoff would probably be another

The One wrote:

Batman wrote:Half of English team willing to retire for IPL


In an annual poll of the 16 current players, conducted by the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA), eight said they are happy to cut short their national careers and play in the multi-million-dollar Twenty20 league in India.

interesting. anyone want to guess who the eight are? kp's pretty much certain. flintoff would probably be another

Doubtful.

5 stanford games for $500,000 a time would keep the top players on board. This is likely to be fringe players imo...

you think a potential half a mill a year would keep them away from an additional few mills a year? doubt it

The One wrote:you think a potential half a mill a year would keep them away from an additional few mills a year? doubt it

It's not half mil a year - its a potential half mil for 1 game on top of their yearly salary...

JKLever wrote:It's not half mil a year - its a potential half mil for 1 game on top of their yearly salary...

It's not even half a mill/a couple of mill - this is dollars we're on about here - peanuts. The likes of Pietersen earn $2 million a year without even whoring themselves.

I'd like to see an age group breakdown of the players who responded to the poll. You can bet your life, the profile of the players who would retire early would be:

30 something

At best a marginal pick for England/international career long over

Obviously.

I think someone like Shah, for example, who has been banging on the England door for years and years but still doesn't seem to be quite what they're looking for, has probably decided that if he's still "next cab off the rank" this time next year (when he'll be 30) the chances are that he'll never get a run at it as younger batsmen coming through always seem a more attractive investment when team selection is tight.

In that case, why not? It's a short career. No point spending it waiting around twiddling your thumbs interspersed with the odd drinks duty.

Not at all surpirsed.

Fans are passionate about sport and get all worked up about what colour of clothing a player is wearing. For the players the primary driver is all about making a living like all human beings.
Passion etc. will take a second seat when it comes to a quesiton of carving out a better living.

Josh Carney wrote:Not at all surpirsed.

Fans are passionate about sport and get all worked up about what colour of clothing a player is wearing. For the players the primary driver is all about making a living like all human beings.
Passion etc. will take a second seat when it comes to a quesiton of carving out a better living.

Those players won't last long in the internatal arena. And international cricketers aren't starving. They have a better living in most of the countries bar Zim, BD and maybe NZ.