The stage is all set for the extravagant Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 which is slated to kick off from March 26. The 65-day season will see two new teams (Gujarat Titans and Pune Super Giants) entering the fray where 74 matches will be played. With return of the group format in the tournament, the 10 participating teams will be divided into two groups of five.
IPL features players ranging from national to overseas who wait all year long to make their case for most popular league of the shortest format. The traction IPL gets is undebatable but yet the debate is on as the league has been on target of the former cricketers', especially after England's Ashes debacle, a journalist took a dig at the league saying that this time the IPL window will be taking 1/6th of the year.
But India's prime off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin came to IPL's defense while referring to a tweet from an English journalist who took a dig at IPL.
After England's debacle in 2021-2022 Ashes, sundry of cricketers such as Michael Atherton, David Gower slammed IPL as one of the reasons for Joe Root and Co.'s lacklustre performance Down Under.
“What are the disadvantages because of this two-week earlier start when it comes to other countries? They (international sides) would have already scheduled their international calendar. For instance, we have England and Australia are playing few games against different countries during the IPL. Even Sri Lanka has few international matches during the IPL window,” Ashwin began.
"But mostly, South Africa, Australia, England, and New Zealand, schedule their international games based on IPL fixtures. This year, New Zealand are not having any international matches during IPL.
“Lawrence Booth (English journalist) had tweeted about IPL fixtures saying it takes almost one-third (one-sixth) of the year. Even the English Premier League happens and almost has a six-month window. The players will have more gaps between matches and they will have only one or two matches per week. Of course, cricket getting to that stage will always remain a huge question mark. But IPL as a league has all the potential to take cricket into that stage for sure. And all the cricket viewers, cricket nations, stakeholders know this already,” added Ashwin.
The 35-year-old was roped in by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 5 crore, took the example of the Premier League clashing with other football leagues to substantiate his point. Ashwin said that in cricket there windows are getting shortened by each day with the increase in the number of the leagues around the world and called the criticism of the league time and again unnecessary.
"Whereas in cricket, we have a 50-over World Cup, World Test Championship, T20 World Cup, and add to that, we need to have windows for all these leagues as well, like IPL, PSL, T10 league, CPL, BBL, etc. In England, they have Hundred-ball competition and add to that, they have a T20 Blast as well. There are so many leagues being started every year.
Ashwin also turn screw on ex-cricketers by terming their allegations baseless.
“IPL has been under the radar for so many years now. Suddenly, some ex-cricketer will say something bad about IPL without any reason. Imagine the situation in 2008 or 2010. There were only 20-25 cricketers who would be in the Indian setup for representing Team India,” said Ashwin.
