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Ponting blames ICC for IPL revolution

Posted online: Friday , February 22, 2008 at 1215 hrs IST
      

Melbourne, February 22: : Concerned over long-term effects of Indian Premier League's money power, Australian captain Ricky Ponting has blamed the International Cricket Council for not acting in time to develop the Twenty20 format to its potential and trying to put lid on it.

Ponting said the luring private Twenty20 revolution in India was threatening to spoil the composition of national sides.

"The amount of money being bandied around here and the amount of money and power the Indian board, the BCCI, has, who knows how cricket administration worldwide is going to pan out," Ponting said.

"Twenty20 cricket has been big at domestic level for most of this decade in England, then South Africa and now Australia.

"It was obvious by the crowds at that level that it was going to be big. If the ICC had jumped on it then and developed Twenty20 cricket to its potential instead of trying to keep a lid on it then there might not have been any need for an IPL to counter the rebel Indian Cricket League," he wrote in his column for 'The Australian'.

The Aussies skipper warned various cricket boards to be careful about the implications of the private leagues -- IPL and ICL.

"If the ICC is saying it can't find a window for the IPL, then those running the game will have to be careful how they handle this Twenty20 phenomenon," Ponting said.

Giving example of Andrew Symonds, who has to decide whether to tour Pakistan or play in IPL, Ponting said money could play a big role in influencing the decision.

"If he doesn't want to go to Pakistan and the tour's on and Cricket Australia says you can't play in the IPL, there will be some serious decisions that will have to be made and there will have to be some serious thinking that will have to go into those decisions.

"Making more money and spending most of the year with family by playing in the IPL instead of for players' respective country could start to look pretty attractive to some blokes and lot of cricketers around the world will look at it that way.

"And if there are potential stars of Test or one-day cricket who might have any sort of thoughts like that, I think it is really dangerous for the game.

"More than 20 Pakistan players have signed with the ICL and IPL. All those guys who signed with the ICL, which make up a big chunk, can no longer represent their country, so it's getting to a dangerous point already," he added.

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Ponting blames ICC for IPL revolution
by Hendry on 2008-02-24 05:43:33.940904+05:30
Hey Ponting, why are you crying like a baby everytime things don't go your way?Why didn't you cry when your Australian Kerry Paker did the same in 1977 as IPL doing now? Oops, you must be baby then and crying for real toys??!!
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Yeah Right
by ganchakkar on 2008-02-23 01:27:52.409209+05:30
He is actually mad cos he got paltry 400K's, why the hell is he participating in the tournament, if not for money. For one's India is calling the shots and they cannot take it.
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