British rule in this year IPL?

Last edition IPL, except for Dimitri Mascharenias no English player involved themselves in IPL, International assignments and also board disputes almost kept even reputed players from participating in league.

This year trends and fad is going to be different, as IPL is going to see two richest players in their history by name Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen battling out for Chennai Super Kings and Bangalore Royal Challengers respectively. They almost rose to limelight touted as first million dollar cricketers in history sold at 1. 55 million $ that too during the time of recession, which raised many eyebrows.

Rookie player Graham Napier who is hard hitting all rounder is going to make his IPL debut for Mumbai Indians, who is new to international cricket.

It’s quite astounding fact that out of 13 slots available in second auction held in Goa, 6 were conferred on English players. Players like Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah (Delhi Daredevils), Ravi Bopara (Punjab Kings XI) are other contracted English players in this year IPL. Even though they will participate only in initial half of the tournament, due to imminent Ashes series, franchise owners firmly believe that they can play a vital role in their teams’ chances.

Now things started to look foggy, with terror attacks on Srilankan Cricket team in Lahore, players and their agents are more sceptical in their participation of IPL. Players have expressed their concerns playing in sub – continent where security has become a travesty because of terrorist attacks.

Kevin Pietersen agent Adam Whitney and Flintoff’s agent Neil fairbrother allayed fears that their players won’t participate in IPL, as they said it’s too early comment on their participation of IPL. They will wait and see how events unfold for newt 2 to 3 weeks before arriving upon any decision on IPL.

Players Cricket Association Chief Sean Morris also voiced his opinion that they don’t have much contact with BCCI, at present but hopefully the communication channels will improve, so that they can get the broader picture about IPL. They will make sure security is at the highest possible way, so that they will send the players.

What lies in favour of BCCI in roping English players into IPL is the amount security they provided for English cricket team after Mumbai terror attacks, but even though IPL is lot more different as it has around 8 teams fighting out. It’s going to be a different story.

No doubt if English players do happen to come they can make a impact and justify their price tag and confidence of franchise owners in them.