ECB director Strauss puts IPL experience ahead of Tests

 

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) director Andrew Strauss said players will be allowed to skip future Test series to play in the IPL and other T20 leagues to keep them fresh for limited-overs cricket. “The great thing about going to those tournaments (T20 league) is that you go as an overseas player, so you’re under pressure to perform and win games of cricket. That’s exactly what we want our players to do,” Strauss said. “Thirty-eight of the 44 players involved in the semifinals of the 2015 World Cup had IPL experience. We should seek further opportunities to get our guys in there,” he added. Strauss also urged a greater separation between the longer and shorter formats.”We won’t get better by treating ODIs as the poor relation. We always make our sacrifices in ODIs rather than Test cricket, but we need to have far more balance between the two formats,” the former England skipper said.

 

The Masters Champions League, a T20 league planned for retired cricketers in the UAE next year, has got the approval of the ICC. Although the ICC is yet to issue an official statement, sources in the governing body said that the league has been given a NOC. In the first edition slated to start on Jan 22, six teams will accommodate a total of 90 players (15 members per squad) who will be selected during an auction in Dubai on November 27.

 

The Pakistan Cricket Board claimed that the BCCI has invited their team to play its ‘home’ series in India next month but their Indian counterparts said no such formal proposal has been made yet. The PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan told the media in Lahore that he was given a formal proposal by his Indian counterpart Shashank Manohar during a phone call yesterday. — Agencies