England should never have flirted with the IPL
What lasting good would an English IPL – even the phrase is internally contradictory – bring to English cricket
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
What lasting good would an English IPL – even the phrase is internally contradictory – bring to English cricket? Would it enhance our chances of winning the Ashes? Would it improve cricket in our state schools? Would it bring into our game lasting money and broader support? asks Ed Smith in the Telegraph.
Perhaps some counties, as Surrey have argued, would have been able to fill their grounds and their coffers. But has it comes to this? That we are willing to shuffle around an entire Ashes summer in order to appease an Indian entrepreneur who has shown little or no interest in the health of English cricket? It is worth adding that I am not an opponent of the IPL. I wish it every success. But I am more concerned with the state of English cricket and of world cricket. To my mind, though apparently not in the minds of those who count, the success of the IPL's second season is a peripheral matter.
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo