Sri Lanka agree to tour England in 2009

[Uppercut]

Bangladesh would be perfect IMO.

We might even get to see Ian Bell ton up.

 

[fredfertang]

Of course the TV contract is crucial but I do find it difficult to believe that the ECB and BSkyB can’t between them come up with some compromise that is better for all concerned than a couple of 5 day matches between Test playing countries that are wholly devoid of either credibility or interest because the opposition’s leading players are absent.

The obvious solution is a 6th Ashes test as others have mentioned but others might be a proper Champion County v The Rest game, North v South done properly (as opposed to the old days when it was a light hearted fixture played at the end of season festivals) or perhaps even a couple of games to whet the appetite between Australia and England minus the centrally contracted guys.

 

[Uppercut]

It seems to be the case that contractual obligations to Digicel mean that no WI cricketer can pull out and play in the IPL.

If this is true, the issue has merely been postponed. Will Sri Lanka ever play an early-May/April match again?

 

[Richard]

Bangladesh would be perfect IMO.

It could be brought forward, from England's side, true. I'm not sure of the possibility from Bangladesh's though - nor what it might do to next summer's scheduling.

 

[Precambrian]

Correct me if am wrong. Did ECB enter into a contract with their broadcasters to play X no. of tests, without checking the FTP? Are they that stupid?

 

[Uppercut]

Correct me if am wrong. Did ECB enter into a contract with their broadcasters to play X no. of tests, without checking the FTP? Are they that stupid?

Stupid indeed. When it was signed in 2005, why did noone say:

"Hold, what if some way into this five-year deal, a new form of cricket catches on, and Indian broadcasters decide that it can be made into a lucrative business? And, just say, all the test cricketers would prefer to play in it instead of our matches and we can't get any held? I'm sorry Sky, but we can't make any promises."

 

[Precambrian]

Stupid indeed. When it was signed in 2005, why did noone say:

"Hold, what if some way into this five-year deal, a new form of cricket catches on, and Indian broadcasters decide that it can be made into a lucrative business? And, just say, all the test cricketers would prefer to play in it instead of our matches and we can't get any held? I'm sorry Sky, but we can't make any promises."

Yea funny. So they left entire April without any matches, thinking that when the time comes, they can get some team to tour that time? What a brilliant example of planning!!

 

[brockley]

Mendis has signed for the kolkarta knights.

 

[Richard]

Yea funny. So they left entire April without any matches, thinking that when the time comes, they can get some team to tour that time? What a brilliant example of planning!!

Have you ever been here in April fella?

Domestic cricket only starts midway through, and is often damp and cold. April is no month to be playing international cricket.

As I said earlier, plenty of people thought it was stupid to be playing it in May when the idea was first broached.

 

[Precambrian]

Have you ever been here in April fella?

Domestic cricket only starts midway through, and is often damp and cold. April is no month to be playing international cricket.

As I said earlier, plenty of people thought it was stupid to be playing it in May when the idea was first broached.

Okay. My point is, when the FTP was signed, ECB knew that only Australia would be touring them in 2009 right?

Then, suddenly they realize gosh, we have commited to Sky that we'd be playing 7 tests a year, and Australia would mean only 5, so let's ask some nation to tour to make up that.

Some nation happen to be Sri Lanka, whose trigger happy chief readily agrees, despite that the key players have already committed to the lucrative IPL.

So, finally, Sri Lanka drops out, and gets a bonus of 70 mill from BCCI.

And here some people blame BCCI for SL not touring England. Which is ludicrous, considering the players had no idea abt a tour at the time of signing their contracts, and were basically being forced to do that.

 

[Precambrian]

Mendis has signed for the kolkarta knights.

Kolkata Knight Riders.

 

[Richard]

Okay. My point is, when the FTP was signed, ECB knew that only Australia would be touring them in 2009 right?

Then, suddenly they realize gosh, we have commited to Sky that we'd be playing 7 tests a year, and Australia would mean only 5, so let's ask some nation to tour to make up that.

Some nation happen to be Sri Lanka, whose trigger happy chief readily agrees, despite that the key players have already committed to the lucrative IPL.

So, finally, Sri Lanka drops out, and gets a bonus of 70 mill from BCCI.

And here some people blame BCCI for SL not touring England. Which is ludicrous, considering the players had no idea abt a tour at the time of signing their contracts, and were basically being forced to do that.

The main people to blame for SL not touring England are those who've been in charge at SLC for the last 5 years or however long (not Ranatunga and his regime, but their predecessors). Those whose mismanagement of funds has meant the players haven't been paid for 6 months. Had the players been getting their salaries, it's possible that they'd have been happier to put SL international commitments above IPL ones. As it is, you can't blame them in the slightest for taking the much safer guaranteed IPL cash.

And there's a couple of things about the FTP and BSkyB deal:

1, until recently it was supposedly thought that Zimbabwe were to be touring - that was the original plan when the FTP was worked-out. Though it is fair to say that's been bungled, for years, as I think we've known for a long time now that this was unlikely to happen. And there should've been some more long-term contingency plans put in place.

But 2, more importantly, as has already been said, there's just no way in 2002 (IIRR that was when the FTP was first penned) that anyone could possibly have imagined that the IPL was going to clash with the UK season. No-one could possibly have guessed that the IPL would be created at the time when these deals were being worked-out. Though certainly, for the ECB to invite Sri Lanka and for SLC to accept the invitiation was very careless.

 

[GIMH]

This whole situation is a joke, all IPL players should be barred from international cricket as a result

 

[silentstriker]

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/375243.html

The IPL should not be held responsible for the cancellation of Sri Lanka’s tour of England, the league's commissioner, Lalit Modi, has said. The ECB and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) mutually agreed to postpone the 2009 tour as the England board weren't keen on hosting a second-string Sri Lankan team, with most of their established players given the go-ahead to take part in the IPL.

Modi, speaking at the Global Sport Summit in London, said the IPL had been scheduled keeping in mind the ICC’s Future Tours Programme, and Sri Lanka’s tour of England was a later addition after Zimbabwe .

"It is always portrayed the Indian Premier League is stopping the Test matches being played. There was never a scheduled Test in the first place,” he said. “The Sri Lankan tour would breach the contract with the Indian Premier League."

The IPL, he said, took into account the ICC's fixed programme and signed players on three-year contracts.

"The Sri Lanka board gave their players a no-objection certificate for three years to play in the Indian IPL," Modi said. "Unfortunately the Zimbabwe tour to England was cancelled. The ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) had an obligation to Sky television to bring another team in."

Modi, like before, said the league would want to have England players turning out for the franchises in 2009. "We would love to have the English players play for the IPL. We have the top 100 players in the world in the IPL and they are the only players missing.

Modi said there might be a quid pro quo agreement between the ECB and the BCCI over participation of players in their respective Twenty20 leagues – the English Premier League is set to begin in 2010. "The ECB has approached the BCCI and the IPL with the objective of saying they are ready to provide non-objection certificates to the English players to play in the IPL.

"But there is a big catch to it,” he said. "The ECB are set to launch the English Premier League and the quid pro quo is that if the ECB was to release their players, then the IPL must release a minimum of 20 players for the English Premier League.

“It has to go to a governing council and the BCCI board for approval. In the absence of that approval we will continue the way we are,” he said. “I hope the English players can participate but I cannot guarantee that."

 

[GIMH]

The main people to blame for the cancellation of this tour are SLC, no doubt

 

[Richard]

I think it'd be most accurate to say that the tour should never have been scheduled at all. This potential problem should have been identified and the offer should have been turned-down on the basis that players would not be available.

However, knowing what we now know about Ranatunga and his BCCI feelings I'd not be at all surprised if he deliberately did this to try and get Sri Lankan players out of the IPL. If he did, as I say, idiotic on his behalf - knowing the Lankan players hadn't been paid by SLC for 6 months, it was hardly rocket-science which way they were going to side. It was a battle he had no chance of winning and should not have initiated.

 

[G.I.Joe]

This whole situation is a joke, all IPL players should be barred from international cricket as a result

Haha, unjustified over reaction.

 

[GIMH]

Indeed

 

[Precambrian]

This whole situation is a joke, all IPL players should be barred from international cricket as a result

Elaborate pls? Dunno why IPL is being villainised here. The IPL contracts were entered into before the SL series was even planned.

 

[Richard]

Martyn's post was very much in jest. Though obviously something of a satirisation of the ICL-ban situation.