Former West Indies batsman and one of the all-time greats, Brian Lara, has stated that it is wrong to blame the young generation of cricketers for snubbing national team duties to play in franchised leagues like the IPL. . Lara believes that the current state of cricket has forced players to not only think about their nation, but also how to make a living from it.
Brian Lara’s comments came in light of some senior West Indies players, including Jason Holder and Kyle Mayers, deciding to play in the upcoming edition of the International T20 League (ILT20) instead of joining their national team for the 2-match Test series in Australia starting from January 17 onwards.
It has certainly become a norm for players from small cricket organisations, such as the West Indies, to choose big-money offers to play for a particular franchise. Since the Indian Premier League became popular, it has become even more prevalent.
The ridiculous amount of money a player receives for playing just over 10 games in a season is crazy and something that wasn’t the case 20-30 years ago. This point was raised by Brian Lara himself during a recent interview with SEN Sportsday.
Lara stated that during his playing days, players used to be motivated to represent their nation, but cricket has evolved drastically since then. He finds lucrative contracts difficult for an 18 or 19-year-old to turn down and it is normal for them to ignore international cricket at the moment.
“Impossible for West Indies cricket to compete against franchises,” says Brian Lara
“For an 18 or 19-year-old to say, ‘I’m going to the IPL’ or ‘I don’t care about West Indies cricket,’ it’s not just their fault. 40 or 50 years ago, he may have felt driven or motivated to play for your country. But today’s sport is about playing and making a living, so we have to make sure that’s part of the deal we’re selling.”
“In franchise cricket played all over the world, it is very difficult for the West Indies cricket board to compete with such lucrative opportunities that our cricketers have,” Brian Lara was quoted as saying by PTI.
The snub to international cricket, especially Test cricket, became a major issue when South Africa’s cricket board announced a third-string team for a Test series against New Zealand next month. The reason for sending a third-string team was that most of the Proteas’ senior players will be busy playing in their domestic franchise league, the SA20.
The likes of Steve Waugh and Venkatesh Prasad, among others, asked if this is the beginning of the death of Test cricket, to which Shukri Conrad, South Africa’s head coach, reasoned that it is a major source of income for the board. country cricket and that’s why it’s important for the older players to be there.
“The West Indies cricket board must instil in schools the motivation to play for the nation,” Brian Lara weighs in on how the board can revive
Brian Lara, who was recently in Adelaide to mentor the West Indies team for the 2 Tests in Australia, opined that the West Indies cricket board should look to instil the idea of representing their part of the world to the next generation from their school days. He also claimed that it is impossible for the cricket board to stop its players from choosing lucrative deals, something the board cannot offer at all.
“It is impossible to do it with a current harvest. I think we need to go and take that to schools and age group cricket before we take it to the international stage. First of all, we must try to retain young people, adolescents. We need to get them to understand what West Indies cricket means and how we can protect it,” Lara concluded.
