AUS vs WI: "I’m Heading To IPL..." - Brian Lara's Huge Take On West Indies Players Preferring T20 Leagues

Former West Indies batsman and one of the greatest ever Brian Lara has claimed that it is not right to blame the young generation of cricketers for snubbing National team duties to play in franchise leagues like the IPL. Lara believes that the current state of cricket has forced the players to not just think about their nation but also think about how to make a good living out of it.

Brian Lara’s comments have come in the light of a few senior West Indies players most notably Jason Holder and Kyle Mayers deciding to play in the upcoming edition of International League T20 (ILT20) instead of joining their National team for the 2-match Test series in Australia which starts from January 17th onwards.

Certainly, it has become a norm for players from small cricket-playing organizations like the West Indies to choose big-money deals to play for a particular franchise. Ever since the Indian Premier League became mainstream, it has become even more prevalent.

The ridiculous amount of money that a player gets for playing just over 10 matches of a season is crazy and it is something that was not the case 20-30 years ago. This point was raised by Brian Lara himself during a recent interview with SEN Sportsday.

Lara claimed that during his playing days, players used to have this motivation of representing their nation but cricket has evolved drastically since then. He feels that lucrative contracts are hard to decline for an 18-19 year-old and it is normal for them to ignore International cricket at the moment.

“Impossible For West Indies Cricket To Compete Against Franchises”, Says Brian Lara

“For an 18 or 19-year-old to say, “I’m heading to the IPL” or “I don’t care about West Indies cricket”, It’s not just his fault. 40-50 years ago, you may have been driven or motivated by playing for your country. But the sport today is about playing and making a living, so we have to make sure that that is part of the whole deal that we are selling.”

“The franchise cricket that is being played around the world, it is very difficult for the West Indies cricket board to compete with such lucrative opportunities that our cricketers have,” Brian Lara said as quoted by PTI. 

Snubbing International cricket, especially Test cricket became a major issue when the South African cricket board announced a 3rd string team for a Test series against New Zealand next month. The reason for sending a 3rd string team was that most of the senior Proteas players will be busy playing in their domestic franchise league, the SA20.

The likes of Steve Waugh and Venkatesh Prasad among others called if this is the beginning of the death of Test cricket to which Shukri Conrad, South Africa’s head coach reasoned that it is a major revenue stream for the country’s cricket board and that is why it is important for the senior players to be there.

“West Indies Cricket Board Must Instill Motivation Of Playing For The Nation From Schools”, Brian Lara Opines On How The Board Can Revive

Brian Lara who was recently in Adelaide to mentor the West Indies team for the 2 Tests in Australia, opined that the West Indies cricket board must look to instill the thought of representing their part of the world to the next generation from their school days. He also stated that it is impossible for the cricket board to hold back its players from choosing lucrative deals, something the board cannot offer at all.

“It’s impossible to do it with a present crop. I think we’ve got to go and get that into the schools and into the age group cricket before we bring them out on the international stage. We’ve got to, first of all, try to hold on to the young ones, the teenagers. We need to get them to understand what West Indies cricket means and how we can protect it,” Lara concluded.