Giles recognises value of IPL

The prickly issue of England players' availability for the IPL has been brought back into sharper focus in recent weeks. The ECB appeared to concede ground by pushing back the May Test matches. Former captain Andrew Strauss was found to have a strong opinion in his autobiography, saying the IPL was a necessary event for England to remain competitive on the world stage. And the situation is a key factor in negotiations over the new central contracts. Ashley Giles, England's one-day coach and a strong candidate to replace Andy Flower as Test coach, gave his opinion to All Out Cricket.

You see it both ways. We need our best players available to play for England. At the same time, obviously, if some kind of agreement could be reached where some of our players could be involved more, then that would be fantastic because the experience of playing Twenty20 in the IPL would be good for them. But the priority is having our best players on show here playing for their country.