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NEW DELHI: Two legends of world cricket, Imran Khan and Sunil Gavaskar on Friday held IPL responsible for the Indian team’s recent downfall, with the latter going on to say that for some Indian players national duty comes second to the cash-rich Twenty20 league.
Without naming anyone, Gavaskar questioned some Indian players’ complete focus on IPL.
“If you look at the events that took place immediately after the 2011 World Cup, you will know the guys who actually took their places for granted, those who did not make themselves available and preferred to play in the IPL and then go for surgeries,” Gavaskar said.
“I think those are the guys who instead of looking at India were looking at contributing for their IPL franchises. If at all you need to take a rest, you need to take a rest from club matches,” he said, when asked about India’s ODI series loss to Pakistan.
Gavaskar’s views were supported by Imran, who too felt that the IPL has a big role to play in Indian cricket team’s decline in the past one year.
“Unless Indian cricket deals with the IPL, unless you work out a balance between Test cricket and Twenty20 cricket and the commercial aspect of the IPL, Indian cricket will go down rapidly,” he warned.
“The Indian players, apparently, are using up all their energies in competitions like the IPL while giving scant respect to proper international cricket which is a dangerous trend to say the least.”—Agencies
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Comments (31) Closed
Jan 06, 2013 12:33pm
The Indian players look tierd it seems like they are going through the motions of playing they need to go back to the drwaing board get rid of the dead wood bring in new players and stop playing so much IPL when you play a sport like cricket you do it for the love of the game the IPL has ruined all that all players want now is to make money cricket is not like football where moiney is thrown at you, you choose a soprt like cricket becasue you know you are not going to make millions from it, they should concentrate on the game and not chase money.
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Jan 07, 2013 06:06am
My thoughts to keep IPL and international cricket both - keep a cap on the players franchise salaries.
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Jan 06, 2013 12:34pm
they do have focus on their own team thats why they are doing so well and India has just given up.
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Jan 06, 2013 08:56am
Imran's comment should be taken in the present context and the hype created by the on-going pak-india series.one,especially legends like imran,can comment on any cricketing side,and when it is not ill-intended.we should not make a mess of everything.
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Jan 05, 2013 10:55am
very well said.
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Jan 05, 2013 11:08am
So Make them an offer they can not let it down.
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Jan 05, 2013 11:54am
Blessing in disguise for the Pakistani cricketers.
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Jan 05, 2013 12:07pm
Both of them are 100% right !
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Jan 05, 2013 12:31pm
well both of these men were what we will say MEN but today what we are seeing here in cricket are what we call them not men
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Jan 06, 2013 09:07am
So much money is involved in advertising IPL and fixing that no one is interested in national interest.see what the player of othwr game gets compared to cricket in India.India should take zaheer abbaas as their coach in place of a britisher or australian
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Jan 05, 2013 01:00pm
I totally agree. Pakistani players not playing in the IPL has been a blessing in disguise, they have been able to focus and concentrate their energies on playing for their country and proving their worth. And they are proving it. Keep up the good work.
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Jan 05, 2013 03:57pm
T20 is in fact the destroying the art of cricket. Cricket is an artistically beautiful game of both mental challenges times with physical actions but T20 is changing the psyche of players in the worst ways with batsmen turning into mindless hit or miss sloggers which forces bowlers & fielders to go into a frenzy mode. This will destroy the game of cricket in the long run. T20 should either be banned altogether and restricted severely in terms of numbers of T20 games being allowed to play.
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Jan 05, 2013 04:09pm
They both are mad b/c there was no IPL during their days and they could not make all that money :D
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Jan 05, 2013 04:35pm
Keep up the good work and stay away 20/20.........
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Jan 05, 2013 05:21pm
I appreciate Pakistan not only as a cricket team winning a ODI series agaisnt India as it is a part of game -loose or win...my appreciation is because THIS TEAM BELONGS TO A country country where international cricked has been banned and cricket is almost dying... a country where everyday is coloured by bloodshed with bomblasts , terrorism and a country internally bad reputed . Winning.despite all these circumstances , is not only winning a game but proving how emotionally strong they are as a NATION......God bless them
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Jan 05, 2013 06:23pm
Imran Khan should know whey the Indian players give huge importance to IPL. After all, Imran Khan also risked his cricketing career with Pakistan when he flew off to play the Packer series. The reason is very obvious and natural: money.
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Jan 05, 2013 06:45pm
100% Agree with Gavaskar & Imran Its this MAD Money Making Machine IPL which destroys indian cricket.
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Jan 05, 2013 07:39pm
I would like to advocate the opines of both legends. The Indian cricket board does pay attention to organize and prioritize the jobs and duties of the Indian players, Although, players are motivated to serve for the country by their performance in the ground, but charm of money and to be in a spotlight is dangerously growing target distracting agent amongst young cricket players especially in India. Therefore, a proper balance between league matches and international tournaments will be a great solution for India, as the Indian government and cricket board could not face the complete breakdown and sanctions of any kind on IPL.
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Jan 05, 2013 07:43pm
T20 banned? Are you mad or what? If hockey goes down, you want to ban tennis? These are two different things. Just keep them separate. Different teams for different games.
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Jan 05, 2013 07:45pm
Offer must be in the order of millions of dollars per year, otherwise I am not interested.
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Jan 05, 2013 08:54pm
Who owns IPL? Why can't Indian cricket board put a cap on IPL matched. Number of matches on player can play and money should be capped too. National duty should pay more than IPL matches.
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Jan 05, 2013 10:41pm
Or saving it(energy).
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Jan 05, 2013 10:45pm
The name of the game is money.In matter of fact for some reasons or others, Pakistani players could not get in IPL.
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Jan 05, 2013 10:53pm
Not playing? The Pakistani players strongly condemned for not letting them play in IPL.
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Jan 06, 2013 12:42am
I agree. In addition to looking tired, a lot of the Indian cricketers like Kohli and Ghambir seemed to have lost their form while Pakistani batsmen Nasir Jamshed and Hafeez were in form; an extremely important aspect to winning games.
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Jan 06, 2013 02:33am
Although I agree that T20 format is the major cause of decline in the art of cricket among the players, however, let
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Jan 06, 2013 04:46am
Does Gavaskar live in the real world? Would he have not wanted to play the IPL and make himself rich if he had the opportunity? Don't blame the players; they are only human. The BCCI should come up with a Plan which will attract players to test cricket - simple! The first step towards solving a problem is to identify it and Gavaskar did not do that. At least Imran did not blame the players but the IPL set up and suggested some sort of a balance to be created between IPL and test cricket. As it has turned out this has been a blessing for Pakistan cricket. Pakistani players are hungry and feel that they have to prove themselves and hence are doing so. The 3 nil whitewash of England is easily Pakistan's best test performance in its history, which happened hardly a year ago with majpr credit to Misbah, Pakistan's best-ever captain. He added most value to the team of mostly average players and a couple of world class spinners.
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Jan 06, 2013 04:55am
Why Zaheer Abbas, Imran Khan, and many other Pakistanis are so much in love with Indian cricket and Indian team? If they can focus their energies on Pakistani cricket, I am sure some benefit can come.
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Jan 06, 2013 06:00am
Where was the focus when pakistan were beaten 4-0 by England in UAE recently? Where was the focus when India beat pakistan in the ODI world cup, Asia cup and 20/20 world cup? Come on... India won the world cup even after playing IPL. The reason for India's bad form is overall too much cricket, not only IPL. There should be a rotation policy and bring in younger talented players.
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Jan 10, 2013 07:42pm
Many things played their parts in debacle of the Indian team, over confidence, lack of enthusiasm, no inflow of new blood.Remember a water body if does not get fresh water, starts stinking and finely it dries up.As far as IPL is concerned,, it's the genie out of the bottle.Every cricket player in the world would bend backward to ply in in it.
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Jan 10, 2013 06:52pm
Imran is correct, BCCI should coordinate, and draw a time table,so that Indian test players are available,fresh and properly rested, for their national duty. During these matches against Pakistan,some of Indian players clearly exposed. They were visibly tired, and that may be due to their age. Players like, Sehvaq, Gambhir, Dhoni, Yuveraj should now give a chance to fresh blood.
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