Availibility theory thrown up by IPL bosses and team owners is pulp
Availibility theory thrown up by IPL bosses and team owners is pulp
Were you surprised that none of the 11 Pakistan players, who made themselves available for the Indian Premier League (IPL) during yesterday' player auction went unsold?
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Well, if you read MID DAY on Sunday, you shouldn't have been. It was MiD DAY, who reported that no Pakistani player is likely to be sold during the auction, thanks to "informal advice" from the IPL bosses. After reading our report, IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi sent a text message to this writer on Sunday afternoon: "Saw the article. Total biased. Anyway, fiction is good once in a while."
Whenever the media quotes sources, calling the article a work of fiction is usually the defence mechanism of celebrities.
IPL owners made it clear that there were no cricketing reasons behind ignoring Pakistani cricketers.
"There were concerns about their availability," Rajasthan Royals co-owner Manoj Badale told MiD DAY after the auction when asked about why his team management did not pursue Kamran Akmal and Sohail Tanvir, who were part of their winning team in the inaugural IPL.
Mind you, Pakistan are not scheduled to play any international cricket in March and April. So "their availability", can only have non-cricketing reasons.
When asked if the IPL had advised teams to go slow on Pakistani players, a team official, who attended yesterday"s auction in Mumbai, said: "Let"s not get into whether it was our decision or IPL"s directive.
"The point is we were not sure whether the Pakistani players would be able to be a part of the whole
tournament after 26/11.
"So we thought we might as well not waste a vital slot for a player who may not be available and cannot be replaced." Could it have been a government directive? All-India Congress Committee spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed ruled out the possibility.
"The government does not interfere in such matters. It could be the fears of IPL team owners that some political parties might oppose theu00a0 presence of Pakistani players which could lead to disruption of matches,
violence and spoiling the sporting event," said Ahmed.
(With inputs from Surender Sharma)
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