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Legendary former left-hand batter Brian Lara has made a controversial statement about the IPL. Brian Lara blamed the IPL(Indian Premier League) and other franchise cricket for the downfall of test cricket in the West Indies and also he compared the West Indies cricket board with Australia and England to show how these boards are making their players believe how much test cricket is meaningful to them.
West Indies is in Australia for two tests three ODIs and three T20Is and we all know that West Indies haven’t been that impressive in recent years in almost every format. West Indies used to be one of the strongest test teams in the past and everyone has seen big names like Vivian Richards, Curtly Ambrose, Malcolm Marshall, and Brian Lara himself. In the last decade, West Indies cricket has suffered a lot and most of their players have left the national team to play franchise cricket across the globe. IPL plays an important role in the success of franchise cricket globally and this is why former cricketer Brian Lara spoken about it.
Brian Lara stated “I mean, we’ve got to face the facts. With the franchise cricket that is being played around the world, it is very difficult for the West Cricket Board to compete with such lucrative opportunities that our cricketers have. I think we’ve got to, first of all, try to hold on to the young ones, the teenagers. We need to get them to understand what West Indies cricket means and how we can protect it. That’s what Australia has done. Australia don’t just pay their cricketers more or England pays their cricketers more … they develop that sort of loyalty to the sport in their country and that’s what we have not done. For an 18-or-19-year-old to say, ‘I’m heading to the IPL’, or, ‘I don’t care about West Indies cricket. It’s not just his fault. I just think that we have not sold what West Indies cricket means to us as Caribbean people and why you should be playing for the West Indies.”
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Hope with Young Talents
Brian Lara is one of the greatest players of all time. He used to be compared with Sachin Tendulkar and still many cricket experts and former Cricketers believe that Lara was a better batter than Sachin Tendulkar. Brian Lara has a lot of hope in young cricketers he wants them to learn what test cricket is. Ahead of the Australian test series, Brian wants to see young talents coming up and playing test cricket in the future.
He added, “I want to see the talent come through. There’s a lot of talent. There’s always been a lot of talent, but this is a big stage. This is not Mickey Mouse, this is the real deal and Australia is not going to give any quotas. They (Australia) have already won three Test matches for the summer and they’ll be looking to make it five in total. So, I would like to see some fight and I remember being very proud of the team in Perth 13 months ago when we lost on the fifth day of the Test match,”
Brian Lara is the leading run-scorer for West Indies across every format and eight in the World. He has played 430 international games for West Indies and scored 22358 runs. He has 53 international centuries which is the highest for West Indies.
Conclusion
We’ve seen many cricket boards dying because players are not ready to play with less money when they are getting much more from franchise cricket. We can’t say that Franchise cricket is killing international cricket but boards have to make their players stay with the team and teach them the meaning of test cricket. Every country has to focus on their domestic structure more than franchise cricket this is how they can save their cricket. Players also have to understand that playing franchise cricket is good but choosing them over your national team is not worth it. There was a time when youngsters used to dream about playing for their country wearing the national jersey but now almost every young cricketer wants to play IPL or their country’s franchise cricket first then in the national team.
