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

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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.