Return my England cap or I'll join IPL, threatens Bopara
LONDON: England's middle order bat Ravi Bopara has threatened to join the Indian Premier League if selectors don't reward his good form with a recall to the national side.
The 23-year-old player of Indian origin, who had earlier claimed refusing a "six-figure sum" offer from one of the IPL franchises said he would reconsider his decision if he fails to stage a comeback to the side by the next season.
"The decision I made (not to join the IPL) was just based on this season. I don't know what my decisions will be in the future, but if things continue as they are, and the offer comes along again, then I'll have a think about it, and if things haven't change for me with regards to England then I may have to reconsider my options," Bopara was quoted as saying by 'The Guardian'.
Earlier this month, the youngster claimed turning down an IPL offer in order to concentrate playing for Essex to brighten up his chances of a comeback to the national side.
"The England team picked itself for this summer. They'd won the series in New Zealand and the batsman in particular were doing well, I understood that and knew I had to prove myself again to get back into contention by playing four-day cricket for Essex and doing well, which is happening for me right now," Bopara said. More
(c) 2008 Economic Times
Sajid Mahmood turns down IPL to stake England claim
Sajid Mahmood has become the latest England player to turn down a lucrative offer to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The Lancashire seamer's admission comes less than a day after Ravi Bopara, the Essex all-rounder, confirmed he had turned down a lucrative six-figure deal to play in the Twenty20 competition in a bid to cement his place in the national side.
Despite not being selected for England for more than a year, the 26-year-old remains hopeful of a recall, although he has hinted he could be tempted by the IPL if he continues to be ignored.
"A lot of people on the circuit are saying the IPL is the way forward," Mahmood said. "My aim is and always has been to play for England, but if you're not getting in the side, the IPL is a big carrot."
He added: "I've had offers to join the IPL but I'm desperate to work my way back into the England side. That's the reason why I got into cricket in the first place and the desire is still burning brightly. I'm only 26, I've got a lot of years ahead of me in the game, and it would be great to spend those years representing my country and taking wickets.
"However, if things don't work out in that regard, the IPL is a massive draw. There is a hell of a lot of money on offer out there and a cricketer's career is a short one.
"There's not much I or anyone can really do at the moment, though, with the way things are. My aim is by the end of this year, three-quarters into the season, to be back in the England side. If not then I can start having a chat and see about looking at my options."
Dimitri Mascarenhas, the Hampshire captain, is England's only representative in the Twenty20 competition but established internationals such as Kevin Pietersen and Ryan Sidebottom have admitted their interest in participating in the future. Unlike them, Mahmood is not centrally contracted to the ECB and would be free to pursue a contract with one of the eight IPL franchises if an agreement was reached with his county Lancashire.
Although Mahmood believes does not see any reason why England's cricketers cannot enjoy the "best of both worlds".
"It is only three or four weeks out of the season," he said. "If players can go out there, benefit financially as well as test themselves against the top players in the world, they can come back better for it. It's a chance to impress on a big stage against quality players and that's something that could impress the ECB and selectors."
(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.
Len Hutton retires
Len Hutton's choice in the timing of his retirement from cricket was not entirely free, but it was in character. He would have resented any decline towards obscurity, any descent from the highest estate. It was always his intention to leave the field before his powers and position began to diminish. He proposed that people should ask why he had retired rather than why he had not.
But for his illness it is a reasonable assumption that he would have continued in cricket and maintained his chosen path beyond the limits now enforced. His departure was premature, but it is not to be regarded as a tragedy of unfulfilment. Hutton has achieved all his major playing ambitions and he had begun to appreciate both the difficulties and dissatisfactions of repeating himself. When he returned from Australia in the spring of 1955 he experienced the exhaustion of the schoolmaster at the end of a hard term; and a term can be harassing even when the examination results have proved triumphant vindication of methods and beliefs. Moreover, Hutton was in the position of headmaster, with heavy responsibility and no further promotion available. He could anticipate nothing more than continuing to be headmaster and most headmasters find some relief in the prospect of retirement from repetition of struggle and authority.
Had Hutton remained in cricket he could not have avoided the strain of responsibility. He might have stepped aside from the captaincy of England but he could never have played for England without leading the side at least in his own mind. He might have sought the comparative calm of a middle-order batsman but he would always have remained the first enemy of opposing bowlers. Wherever he played he could not have escaped his name. The penalty of greatness is its enchainment.
Hutton has understood that penalty for a long time past. It has conditioned his attitude towards cricket and the cricketer's life ever since his greatness became established and its implications spread before him. He has rarely lived without thought for the morrow. During his tour of Australia in 1946-47 he was counted by the Australian bowlers as the principal threat to Australian success. An innings of 364, played in another era of cricket, remained clearly in mind. There was unconcealed attempt to test his courage as well as his technique and some feeling arose that the test had not been wholly negative. Hutton thought differently and he thought deeply. It was his intention to tour Australia more than once and he knew, better than most, that he had only to remain an active batsman to be an incomparable batsman. Magnificence that is not war never held a place in Hutton's sense of the fitness of things. He could also afford to wait.
He waited, and watched, and studied, and batted on. Time and the hour ran through the rough days of 1948 and into another tour of Australia wherein Hutton established his quality beyond all argument and forever. As a batsman he had become master of the world; in batsman-ship there was no further step to take. His major interest in cricket turned from personal performance to production.
Until he received the invitation Leonard Hutton never said in public that he wanted to captain England, but he indicated publicly and plainly enough that he ought to captain England because he made it obvious that in the particular circumstances of the time no one had better qualifications for the post. He was a senior cricketer, he was an able cricketer and he was a thoughtful cricketer. He could remember, he could illustrate and he could design. In the event he proved one of the most successful captains in all England's cricket history and he never gave an opportunity for the appointment to be taken away from him. He took office in 1952 and he relinquished it, at his own request, in 1955 without ever having lost a Test-match rubber.
The outstanding characteristic of his captaincy was shrewdness. He made no romantic gestures; he lit no fires of inspiration. He invited admiration rather than affection and would have exchanged either or both for effective obedience. A Test-match rubber played under Hutton's captaincy became a business undertaking with its principal satisfactions represented by the dividends paid. Hutton did not expect his players to enjoy their Test matches until the scoreboard showed victory. He could not countenance a light-hearted approach to any cricket match when the result of that match had a meaning. Be wanted his team to be untiringly purposeful and he found it hard to forgive carelessness or unwariness - particularly his own. Even in success he was prudent, avoiding extravagance in case of rainy days to follow. He never attacked his opponents with a flourish of displayed confidence and he never dismissed the conquered with lordly superiority. He knew the unreliability of fortune and he looked a long way ahead.
Through his inhibitions he missed some of the down-right joy of cricket and had to replace it with more secret satisfactions. They came to him in the rewards attendant upon a name that will always stand among the very greatest cricket has produced.
(c) Cricinfo 2008
England stars chase millions in new tournament
The ECB is set to sign an agreement to create two international Twenty20 competitions, backed by Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire, that will make England's cricketers millionaires.
The Times understands that Stanford, the ECB and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) are in a position to put pen to paper today on a memorandum of understanding that will pave the way for the five-match, $100 million (about GBP50 million) series against a West Indies all-star team and create a four-team international tournament, to be held at Lord's.
Talks between the three parties, which have lasted more than 100 hours, initially focused on a five-match series between England and a West Indies Stanford XI that would rotate for five years between Antigua and Lord's, with the winning team taking $20 million for each match. Now, however, the so-called "Twenty20 for 20" series will be held solely at Stanford's ground in Antigua. In return, at the instigation of the ECB, the American has committed himself to financing five annual knockout tournaments, to be staged at the home of cricket from September 2009.
The Twenty20 tournaments will mean England and a West Indies all-star XI, as well as two international teams invited by the ECB, contesting a $10 million bounty. The teams will be drawn at random into two semi-finals, with the winners entering a play-off for the prize. All television revenue will go to the ECB.
"I'm not going to break even at Lord's," Stanford told The Times last night. "I look at that as part of the overall package, that it will give more exposure to and create more excitement about the whole thing."
Stanford hopes to fly home tomorrow after a week of meetings that have at times stretched to ten hours. "Now that's the package deal and our goal is that I fly out of here on Saturday after signing a memorandum of understanding," he said.
The $20 million matches to be held in Antigua will result in players from the winning team taking home at least $1 million each. If Stanford's team win, $15 million will go to the West Indies team, with $5 million going to the WICB. He has consistently stated that his aim is to improve West Indian cricket and he has secured an agreement from the ECB that whenever England take the prize, an unspecified sum will funnel back to the West Indies. The three teams will also agree to a framework to export the Cricket Foundation's Chance to shine programme, which promotes the sport in state schools, to the islands.
The development of the two series could help to assuage the demands of England's top cricketers to have the chance to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL), where they can make a season's wages in six weeks. An England player who featured in a successful team in all Stanford's fixtures over the five-year period could earn upwards of GBP3 million. Stanford said: "Whatever happens in Antigua, we all win and if we generate enough television revenue, that will go back into West Indian cricket, too."
On Wednesday, The Times disclosed that Stanford had discussed with the ECB the prospect of financing an English version of the IPL, which he believes would benefit from better management and organisation than the Indian tournament. "I think they're going to reach out to private investors and float something," Stanford said. He added last night that discussions had "stepped up a notch" and that he hopes to return to the UK for further talks.
The ECB refused to comment last night. This week the board said in a statement that talks had been "very productive" and had "further developed the constructive and positive discussions".
Moving the stumps
Initial talks focused on five annual Twenty20 matches between England and a West Indies XI, worth $20 million a game, to rotate between Antigua and Lord's.
The proposals now specify that those games should be held in Antigua alone. Lord's is set to host five annual tournaments featuring those two teams along with two other international sides, with the winner taking $10 million each year.
The annual conference of the ICC, held at Lord's since the first meeting in 1909, is to leave the ground. MCC confirmed that the conference will move to Dubai in June. It was claimed last night that the move was prompted by uncertainty over whether Peter Chingoka, the president of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, would be allowed into Britain. An MCC spokesman said: "With the ICC having moved its headquarters to Dubai in 2005, this is not a big surprise."
(c) Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.
England stars set for slice of T20 action
IN a move that illustrates which way the wind is blowing, England cricket chiefs have announced they are likely to compete in the Stanford Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies. With no window in the current international schedule to allow England's centrally contracted players to compete in the Indian Premier League, the England and Wales Cricket Board are eager to appease players keen to cash in on lucrative Twenty20 tournaments. ECB chairman Giles Clarke's announcement came after talks with the Texan billionaire backing the series, Allen Stanford.
"We did see Sir Allen - a date has not been fixed for when anything will be played, or what format it will take this year or going forward into the future," Clarke said."I think that match is very likely to take place. Sir Allen is doing a huge amount for cricket in the West Indies and we are keen to help."
THE IPL could soon have a new Twenty20 rival after ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed confirmed world cricket's governing body have received a request from the banned, rebel Indian Cricket League for official recognition. The ICL never received recognition from Indian cricket's governing body, the BCCI, before its launch early this year. However, Speed revealed ICL had not, at that time, asked for recognition from the ICC.
"Until recently the ICL had never sought recognition from the ICC," Speed said. Neither did the BCCI send anything in "writing to the ICC terming the ICL as unsanctioned or claiming that they did not recognise it." The first ICL season finished with the Hyderabad Heroes winning the title.
(c)2007 Al Sidra Media LLC
Honour for town's England cricket star
A SOUTH Tyneside sports club is set to honour one of its most vivid personalities.
Fiery ex-Yorkshire fast bowler Alec Coxon became a Durham Senior League legend as one of its very finest professionals, first during eight seasons for Sunderland from 1951 and then a six-year tenure at South Shields.
At the age of 76 in 1992 he returned to the Wood Terrace club - where his daughter Jocelyn was its first lady committee member - to coach the youngsters.
And in his later years until his death, four days after his 90th birthday in January, 2006, Alec was a regular at the ground as a keen supporter of both the cricket team and associated Westoe Rugby Club.
Now a newly-built veranda attached to the clubhouse is to be dedicated to him, a commemorative plaque to be unveiled by Jocelyn before the
First XV's North One league game on Saturday - appropriately against his home town team of Huddersfield.
Tall, lean and famously belligerent on the field, but sociable and gregarious off it, Alec played once for England at Lords in 1948 against the Australians and, although his appeal was turned down, always vowed he had the mighty Don Bradman plumb lbw before he had scored.
Disappointed at not being selected for the 1950-51 England tour of Australia, he became the region's first GBP 1,000-a-year professional and, always a stickler for the highest standards, made an immediate impact, his figures speaking for themselves.
For Sunderland, he took 753 league wickets, including 100 in three seasons, for just 8.73runs each as well as scoring 3,764 runs in correct, solid fashion at an average of 34.21. For South Shields, although beyond the age of 40, he added 357 victims (10.12) and 2,027 runs (23.84) to those tallies.
Mr Bill Dodds, chairman of the South Shields and Westoe Club - which incorporates the cricket and rugby, as well as tennis and squash, sections - said: "I can think of no other person in the last 50 years who commanded more admiration, awe and respect.
"He was a consummate cricket professional and later, as an ardent and unforgiving spectator at both games, expected nothing less from today's players - and they knew it!"
Rugby Club chairman John Tighe said: "Alec was a colourful character with very decided views on everything. Popular with players, officials and supporters alike, he followed the First team everywhere and came to be regarded as something of a mascot."
All rights reserved (c)2008
Johnston Press Digital Publishing
Flintoff misses out on MCC match
Andrew Flintoff has been left out of the MCC side to play Sussex as he continues his comeback from injury.
England selectors had considered playing the all-rounder against the county champions but have decided to take a more cautious approach.
But the 30-year-old is still hoping to play in England's first Test against New Zealand on 15 May.
He will step up his rehabilitation in Lancashire's friendlies ahead of the new season which begins on 16 April.
Flintoff underwent surgery, for the fourth time, back in October to correct a recurring problem with his left ankle and began bowling competitively in the Arabian Cricket Challenge at the beginning of March.
A 12-man MCC squad - captained by Middlesex batsman Ed Joyce - has been announced for the four-day match, which will begin on 10 April at Lord's.
Joyce's county team-mate Owais Shah, back from England's tour of New Zealand, is also in the squad for the traditional curtain-raiser to the new season.
Also chosen are Essex pair Ravi Bopara and James Foster, as well as promising Yorkshire leg-spinner Adil Rashid.
Shah, Bopara and Foster are the only players with Test experience, while Joyce has played on-day internationals.
Spinner James Tredwell and seamer Graham Onions have been in England one-day squads without playing a match, while several other players have also been involved in the England Lions side over the winter.
For the fourth successive year, there is an MCC Universities cricketer - Loughborough UCCE batsman Arun Harinath, who is on Surrey's books - taking part.
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MCC squad to play Sussex: Ed Joyce (Middlesex, captain), Ravi Bopara (Essex), Michael Carberry (Hampshire), James Foster (Essex, wk), Steven Finn (Middlesex), Arun Harinath (Loughborough UCCE/Surrey), Steven Kirby (Gloucestershire), Graham Onions (Durham), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Alan Richardson (Middlesex), Owais Shah (Middlesex), James Tredwell (Kent).
BBC (c) MMVIII
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