Now, You’ve Got An England Team Full Of IPL Stars - Kevin Pietersen On Impact Of IPL On English Players

Former England captain Kevin Pietersen talks about the increase in the number of players in the IPL and the impact the tournament has had on England’s white-ball cricket. It has always been clear that Kevin Pietersen, who was part of 5 IPL teams including RCB, has endorsed the IPL among English cricket, and didn’t like the way his ambitions of playing the grand league were treated by his teammates, captain and coach then.

However, now, as Kevin Pietersen points out, the ECB has allowed its players to play in the IPL, even at the cost of missing international matches. The players learn to play with and against the best in the world under huge pressure, one which helped them win the World Cup a couple of years ago.

To promote more white-ball cricket, the ECB has launched The Hundred, which Kevin Pietersen believes should have been started much earlier.

“One hundred per cent (if England would have been more successful if The Hundred had come earlier). I played in an era when only four or five of us were playing IPL cricket and we were all frustrated sat in England teams, asking, “What on earth are we doing blocking the ball? Why are we picking players who block the ball?” Now you’ve got an England team full of IPL stars who get dropped if they block it. It’s a complete change in mindset,” Kevin Pietersen told Daily Mail.

Male Indian players to play in the Hundred would be huge for English cricket: Kevin Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen also wishes for the Indian players to feature in the Hundred. The BCCI has until now given five women cricketers – Shafali Verma, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Smriti Mandhana, and Deepti Sharma – the NOC to play in the Hundred, but active men cricketers aren’t allowed to play in any overseas leagues.

“The male Indian players make the TV numbers shoot through the roof, and they also make the crowds. They’re so well supported. Politically, if the two boards are on that level and conversations are happening then that would be a huge coup for English cricket,” the former superstar batsman added.

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