IPL Finally Being Embraced By ECB

Tim Wigmore looks at how the ECB have become more open to their players taking part in the Indian Premier League

In 2008, Giles Clarke, then the chairman of the England &Wales Cricket Board,welcomed Allen Stanford to Lord’s. It was one of the most tawdry sights in the history of English cricket: Stanford landing with his helicopter on the Lord’s outfield, and then showing off $20 million in cash. Most of the money in this sealed case, it later turned out, didn’t actually exist. A few months later, Stanford was imprisoned for 110 years for the second biggest investment scam in American history.

A decade on, this extraordinary incident highlights the depth of the ECB’s initial antagonism to the Indian Premier League. The raison d’être for the partnership with Stanford – and the notorious 20/20 for 20 match, the winner-takes-all game between England and the Stanford All-Stars at the ground he owned in Antigua – was essentially to build an alternate power base to the IPL. The idea was that the cash from the Stanford games could prevent England’s players going to the IPL.