Aussies sucked up to Kohli & Co. due to IPL cash: Clarke

Melbourne, April 7

Australian cricketers were so keen on protecting their lucrative IPL deals that they felt “scared” of sledging India captain Virat Kohli and his teammates during a particular period and instead “sucked up” to them, former skipper Michael Clarke has said.

“Everybody knows how powerful India are in regards to the financial part of the game, internationally or domestically with the IPL,” Clarke told Big Sports Breakfast.

“I feel that Australian cricket, and probably every other team over a little period, went opposite and actually sucked up to India. They were too scared to sledge Kohli or the other Indian players because they had to play with them in April,” the World Cup winning Australian skipper said.

Clarke believes that some of Australia’s ruthless on-field character got compromised due to the IPL money.

“Name a list of 10 players and they are bidding for these Australian players to get into their IPL team,” he said. “The players were like: ‘I’m not going to sledge Kohli, I want him to pick me for Bangalore so I can make my $1 million for my six weeks’.”

“I feel like that’s where Australia went through that little phase where our cricket became a little bit softer or not as hard as we’re accustomed to seeing,” Clarke said about the time after the ball-tampering scandal when when captain Steve Smith and David Warner were banned. — PTI