IT WAS not all that long ago that the Indian Premier League and English cricket could be found at loggerheads.
These days, with the ECB eyeing private investment in the Hundred not too far down the line, the relationship has a more flirtatious tint.
Over the next two months, though, England's selfish need is for the competition to deliver immediate returns, namely in providing a vehicle for several of its white-ball stars to find form and put a miserable winter behind them ahead of this summer's T20 World Cup defence.
The unusual timing of that tournament, which starts in the USA and Caribbean in early June, means there is no domestic white-ball cricket on offer on home shores before England meet Pakistan in a four-match series in late May that marks the only warm-up to their transatlantic trip.
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