The IPL 2021 started in April as per the schedule but got postponed midway after India got hit by the second wave of COVID-19 and now the remaining matches of the tournament will be played in UAE from September 19. When the Board of Cricket for Control in India (BCCI) announced its decision of conducting remaining matches of the IPL 2021 in September-October, there were many who questioned the availability of the overseas players as the international calendar was already very tight.
However, the BCCI managed this problem quite well by talking to the cricket boards of various nations and now most of the overseas players including the English cricketers will be playing in the remaining matches of the league.
Now the former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen has taken a jibe at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for sending the England cricketers to play in the IPL as earlier the ECB stated that none of the English player would be playing in the second part of the IPL 2021 as they would be giving more importance to the international cricket.
Earlier in May when the ECB director Ashley Giles made the statement regarding the unavailability of the English players in the second part of the IPL 2021, at that time also KP asked his followers to see how the ECB would handle this matter in the future.
Though the English cricket team was scheduled to tour Bangladesh in September-October where they were supposed to play limited overs cricket, now that tour has been postponed till March 2023 and the English players will be available to take part in the IPL.
Kevin Pietersen shared the photo of headlines which talked about postponement of the Bangladesh tour and tweeted, “Can anyone find my tweet from a few months ago when ECB said none of their players will play the IPL and will have to prioritise International cricket. I think I said, watch this space or something…….”
https://twitter.com/KP24/status/1422463400118992899
KP also talked about the time when he was the only one who wanted to play in the IPL while other English cricketers and the ECB wanted to stay away from the T20 franchise. However, the ECB changed its approach towards the IPL after 2015 as they wanted to change the structure of their cricketing system in the shorter format.
Kevin Pietersen tweeted, “It’s going to be v interesting to watch how the ECB handle this issue around not allowing it’s best players to play IPL, if it’s rescheduled. When I went up against ENG, I was alone. This time, it’s all their best branded players! If they stand together, they’ll play IPL!”
https://twitter.com/KP24/status/1392395680853991427
Are you excited for the second part of the IPL 2021?