Australian coach on IPL
With two T20 World Cups in the next two years – the 2020 event to be hosted by Australia and the one in 2021 to be held in India – the participation of Australia’s cricketers in the Indian Premier League will help them improve their skills in the shortest format, feels Australian coach on IPL, Justin Langer.
In the IPL auction that took place recently, Pat Cummins was picked up by the Kolkata Knight Riders for a record sum of INR 15.5 Crore – becoming the most expensive overseas buy in the history of the competition – while Glenn Maxwell went to Kings XI Punjab for INR 10.75 Crore. Nathan Coulter-Nile (INR 8 Crore to Mumbai Indians) was another Australian who commanded a big price.
Marcus Stoinis (INR 4.8 Crore to Delhi Capitals) Aaron Finch (INR 4.4 Crore to Royal Challengers Bangalore) Kane Richardson (INR 4 Crore to RCB), Alex Carey (INR 2.4 Crore to DC), Mitchell Marsh (INR 2 Crore to Sunrisers Hyderabad), Josh Hazlewood (INR 2 Crore to Chennai Super Kings), Andrew Tye (INR 1 Crore to Rajasthan Royals) Chris Green (INR 20 Lakh to KKR), Josh Philippe (INR 20 Lakh to RCB) were among other Australians who found takers in the auction.
While Mitchell Starc opted out of the IPL and James Pattinson found no takers, plenty of Australian players will be in action in IPL 2020, which Langer hopes will be a win-win situation. “In this cycle, it’s hopefully going to be really valuable to us with two T20 World Cups coming up, we’ve talked a lot about the emphasis we are putting on T20 cricket.
“Ultimately it’s their decision as well, they play 12 months of the year now, you have to look at short term and long term, you certainly can’t begrudge anyone being in the IPL, but from a purely big-picture point of view from us, the fact they are going to play 10-14 T20 games, where we’ll play in two years, and with the World Cup [next season] that can only help their skills. Hopefully, it’s a win-win for everyone,” he added.
Meanwhile, Langer insisted that the big sum paid to Cummins won’t change his attitude or burden him with expectations. “You could pay him (Cummins) a $100 million, you could pay him a $1 billion, it’s not going to change him. They’re the sort of people you want in your team. You could pay him a billion dollars a day and it’s not going to change him. He just loves playing cricket, he’s an outstanding young bloke…it’s not going to affect him.”
