Former England captains Mike Atherton and David Gower have pointed out IPL as one of the big reasons behind the team’s humiliation at the hands of Australia in Ashes 2021-22. The duo has advised current crop of England players to prioritise playing Test cricket over the lucrative T20 league.
England failed to win a single Test on their Australia tour which culminated in a 0-4 thrashing. Their Test captain Joe Root, who was earlier reportedly interested in taking part in IPL, later turned down the chance to enter the auction ahead of the upcoming season.
However, former England fast bowler Dominic Cork has a different opinion claiming that there’s been a steep decline in the quality of cricket in the country’s domestic circuit (county championship) which is reflecting on the international stage.
“We will blame anything. We will blame the IPL, The Hundred. The reason is that we just took the eye off Test cricket,” Cork told The Hindu.
“We don’t have the quality we had back in the 1990s when we had top overseas players. We used to have Mohammed Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Michael Holding, Brian Lara and many others,” he added.
Cork, who played 37 Tests between 1995 and 2002, also claimed that the absence of batters who had the ability to bat all day long has also been a major issue.
“They could bat all day. I was lucky to play in that generation,” Cork said.
The 50-year-old praised India’s pace attack saying MRF academy and IPL has contributed to their growth.
“India has come along greatly in fast bowling. Dennis Lillee and the MRF began it all. Then Duncan Fletcher as a coach ensured that India had the firepower,” he said.
“I have seen them in the IPL and then developing into fine bowlers, like Navdeep Saini. With spinners like R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja and all the pacers India could bowl any side out,” he added.
