IPL

Though I’m not against the phenomenon that is the Indian Premier League, I do worry about the future of international cricket with its introduction.

It’s hard to tell what effect the league is going to have on the game until a couple of seasons have been completed. But with the money involved, the players attracted and the attention from the media, it’s hard to see how it could be anything but a huge success.

Dimi Mascarenhas is the only English player to be playing in the league at the moment, but with the attraction as it is, I don’t see that lasting too long. English players are the most experienced in the 20/20 format, and this will probably mean the clubs of the IPL offering big bucks for English players’ signatures.

We’ve already seen that five of New Zealand’s key players will miss the first week of their tour to England due to the IPL, and the fear is the effects could be much more drastic in the future. When the league inevitably becomes successful, who is to say the organisers won’t expand it? Thus eating up more time of the English summer and a large proportion of the year? Could we be seeing second string international sides playing test matches in the not to distant future? Time will only tell.