The 13th season of the Indian Premier League is nearing its conclusion with the playoffs taking place next week.
Not that it is of any interest to me whatsoever.
I loathe the IPL. Test cricketers should not be jetting off to India – or the UAE, as is the case this season – to play a T20 tournament at the expense of either rest or game time in first-class cricket.
My frustration is compounded by interviews with Jofra Archer and Jos Buttler, both of whom are playing for the Rajasthan Royals, about how tough they’re finding life inside the bio-secure bubbles that are now commonplace in the sporting world to allow events to go ahead during the COVID pandemic.
Both players were in the England bio-secure bubble for the entire European summer, right the way through from the end of June to mid-September before flying straight to the UAE for the IPL at the end of the one-day series against Australia.
Regardless of whether or not the Rajasthan Royals manage to make it to the finals, Archer and Buttler will still have spent the best part of four months in bio-secure bubbles with next to no time spent at home.
Once the IPL is done and dusted on November 10, it won’t be long before England’s tour of South Africa, a tour that Buttler is hoping to be selected for. Archer is also likely to be named in the squad.
(Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
Sympathy should be limited towards any cricketer who has chosen to fit in a spell in the IPL in between international duties.
While I completely understand that isolation away from family back home can be difficult to deal with, it must be remembered that the IPL is voluntary.
As such, seeing as players have chosen to play in the IPL, the onus is on them to accept the consequences.
Eoin Morgan, England’s one-day captain, has predicted that players will start withdrawing from series as the mental toll of life inside the bubble becomes too much.
Has the damage already been done, though?
Alarm bells should have been ringing even before players departed for the IPL.
Right from the start of the European summer in July, it was recognised that series played inside bio-secure bubbles were hard slogs to get through.
There’s been plenty of talk about the potential for players to burn out but no action to do something about it.
For as long as bio-secure bubbles are necessary to allow tours to go ahead, players and governing bodies alike need to decide how much cricket is too much cricket to play.
This includes prioritising which formats a player should be playing because it will be unsustainable for a player to play all three formats all the time. That will be dependent on central contracts and a player’s individual preference.
Otherwise, if players like Jofra Archer and Jos Buttler continue to give themselves the same workload as they are now and struggle their way through, I’m afraid it’ll be a case of you’ve made your bed, now lie in it.
Liam
Guest
Class envy doesn't solely refer to envy created from the difference in social class, it can refer to the difference in economic status. You're objecting to people with potentially valid complaints on the basis of their 'luck' in having a career that is a) well remunerated, and b) playing a sport they (and presumably you) enjoy. So, class envy.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
You're right Liam, their issues don't affect me, I shouldn't have said anything.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Don't shoot the messenger! :laughing:
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Fingers crossed England may tour Pakistan early next year but it may only be a 'B' team. The India tour's the blockbuster this winter so everything else will have to work around it. Similar probably to CA getting the India tour on by tearing up all the other tours.
jameswm
Roar Guru
Wrong. Pro footy players aren’t from a different class.
Liam
Guest
So yeah, class envy then.
Liam
Guest
You object too much, methinks. Archer and Butler are allowed to feel put upon by the demands of 'the bubble', just like you and the author of this piece is within your own lives. The difference is they're asked for comment, where you are not. Their issues with 'the bubble' don't affect you in any way, so why allow it to make you feel annoyed or dissatisfied?
Liam
Guest
Exactly.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
As I said Joshua, even if paying themselves, request additional accommodation at the resort, it's not like it's business as usual for tourism and these places are full. Sure the franchise may so no, no room, whatever, the players may have even asked for all I know! It was just a what if!
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Here's hoping it happens sooner rather than later!
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
It only becomes ‘wrong’ as it were when it begins to overload a cricketer’s playing schedule. That’s my main concern. Even pre-Covid, I wasn’t keen on players going to the IPL then launching into the Test summer. EDIT: English Test summer. Gee, you’d think after a year and a half on here I’d remember this is an Aussie site :laughing:
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Fair enough. You've brought up some thought provoking points there. In all honesty, I'm not really fussed about wages in cricket because they're not as extortionate as those in the Premier League, for example. I can only apologise for my part in this comments section moving towards wages rather than the real issue of burnout. But just for my final two cents worth, I hope you can understand why I'm not willing to agree with comments on the lines of providing for the family because that's what we all do and most of our incomes are certainly not six figure sums per annum!
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
Well, when the average British person can successfully play cricket for England and help you win back the Ashes, beat the Indians etc then I guess you have a very strong point about the wages. Until then, if you pay peanuts you're likely to get monkeys. Whether 20x the average wage is too much I'm not in a position to comment on really. I'm not even sure what our top players are paid and how that relates to our average income. I've never thought about it tbh because it just doesn't worry me unduly. I assume they get paid according to what the game can support and that's fine with me. .. I've applied the same logic to my position on the IPL. The idea of cricketers playing the game for its own sake is fine for the vast majority of amateurs but when you ask someone to make it their fulltime job you are competing against all the other big time sports. For example, if Shane Warne had been just a little bit better at AFL he may never have played Test cricket. AFL was his first love and cricket was more or less a fall back position. Warne is not an isolated example. A surprising number of our players have been good at multiple sports and that's still the case today. Cricket is competing for athletes and it must be competitive salary wise to get it's air share. That's all I'm saying.
Nick
Roar Guru
Yeah, I get all that. But at the end of the day, when Archer is 50, he's not going to be presented with contracts offering him $1m to play 6 weeks of cricket. With no disrespect to Mark Wood, but he's not in the same marketable ballpark as Archer. If he was offered a salary that Archer was getting, I'll bet my house that he would be in the UAE right now. It's not wrong for him to be there, and it's not wrong for him to talk about the struggles of it..but yes, it would be an issue if he kept harking on about it. It would be very wrong if he was being paid MORE to be in a bubble and still having a whinge.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
The plane is flying direct from London to South Africa. It has to be chartered. You can't have two different planes flying from two different locations. The players will be back in England before Christmas.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
All I have said when it comes to the money situation is that the central contract wages are still fairly handsome and so that further brings into play my point about the IPL being voluntary. I’m not going to sit here and agree with ‘families to feed etc.’ when the Test cricketer wage is about 20x the average British income and the white-ball contract about 6x the average British income. I’m also not happy with this concept that we attract players to cricket by paying them. If you have to be financially persuaded to play a format that every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to play then don’t set foot on a cricket field.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Of course it's not a crime to want to make money. But let's get back to what this article is about: many cricketers do not need to go to the IPL for financial reasons - they are already on a decent wage - and so if they are worried about burnout and spending time in bubbles, they can choose not to go. That's exactly what Mark Wood has done this time around. And I'm sure you can understand why I'm not willing to sit here and nod my head along to 'rich people still have bills to pay and a lifestyle to finance' because we all have bills and lifestyles and we do that on a much lower income.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Whether or not you had the money to do it, where are the families going to stay and how is it all going to be Covid-safe?
Paul
Roar Guru
fair point, but other countries have made short tours there in recent years and have had no issues
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Right! So a logistical nightmare? I'm always amused when organizations expect players to be adaptable, yet can't think outside the square. "These are unprecedented times".........but everyone must meet in London on Tuesday to fly out to South Africa together. You guys who are half way there in Dubai with verified covid free status must fly back to lockdown England and then fly to SA. Only 3 million backroom staff and a press manager could see the logic in that. Personally I woulda had the family in the resort, then told the backroomers I'd meet them in SA and see the family off back home, if they couldn't be in SA for Christmas with me. How many of those million backroomers ARE mental health aware?