Picture Credit: IPL/Twitter
IPL has been England's soft target more often than not. For every second event in English cricket, their former cricketers find a way to blame the Indian T20 League. The same happened after England's dismal performance in the recently concluded Ashes trophy. The Joe Root-led side could not register a single win in the five-match series and lost it 0-4. Their batters, in particular, were abysmal.
Joe Root's leadership was also under threat, but the talk was slipped under the carpet with no other option available. While everyone was busy playing the blame game, the England captain had clearly pointed out the reason behind such regular batting collapses from England. Root had said that the quality of cricket being played at the domestic level was not up to the mark. He had also demanded better pitches.
But it seems like the newly appointed Derbyshire coach, Mickey Arthur was in no mood to take the blame and found no one to blame other than IPL. While he was brave enough to say that England batting was to be blamed, he also demanded a boycott of the Indian T20 League by the English cricketers if they look to do well in the upcoming home season.
"England haven't scored enough runs. It's as simple as that," Arthur told The Times. "If you want to lay the blame, you can lay it right there. County cricket isn't to blame. For so long county cricket has been a really good producer of international players. I don't think there's a problem with the system ... If you want the strength early season, unfortunately, you are going to have to stop the players going to the IPL. They are playing there in the early part of the season just before the first Tests. You need your best players playing county cricket preparing for that," said Mickey Arthur.
Liam Livingstone, Jofra Archer earn million-dollar contracts with IPL franchises
While former England cricketers and coaches are busy targeting IPL, dozens of England players are earning lucrative million-dollar IPL contracts with different franchises. The top two gainers were Liam Livingstone and Jofra Archer who bagged 11.5 CR and 8 CR contracts with two of the IPL franchises at the recently concluded IPL Mega Auction.
