Pca Chief Repeats IPL Stance

Sean Morris, chief executive of the Professional Cricketers Association, has reiterated his belief that England players will compete in next year’s Indian Premier League.

Despite the advent of the Stanford Twenty20 agreed last week which will see England compete in five £10m matches against Stanford’s Super Stars, Morris says players still want to play in the IPL.

He stated: “Players want to face the best, and that’s the IPL. There are several IPL offers on the table and I think three or four England players will take part next season.’

The first Stanford match will take place on 1st November in Antigua in the Caribbean. Winning players will receive £500,000 each, with another £1m split between the rest of the squad and coaches.

Added Morris: ‘The Stanford matches don’t clash with the IPL. The only way to prevent England players taking part in the IPL would be to contractually specify where they can and can’t play. That would be a restrictive approach and I don’t think the ECB will do that.’

Morris added that he has concerns Test match players would not be anywhere near as well remunerated.

He commented: ‘The biggest concern we have is about Test match bonuses. We need a balance between the rewards for Twenty20 and Test match players.

‘Test match cricket still generates a lot of money – more than Twenty20 – but the rewards are not there for the players. I don’t think that’s fair. So we need to restructure and revaluate cricket in this country. This is a great opportunity for us to do that.’

The inaugural IPL season earlier this year clashed with the start of the English domestic season and the Test series with New Zealand meaning that England players were barred from competing.

However, next year’s tour to the West Indies will finish a month earlier, possibly allowing England’s players to play in India, but room in the domestic schedule would also need to found.