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Untitled Document
 More than half top cricketers prefer cash over country
26th Jun 2008 20:00 IST
Agencies
Players' claims of keeping country above cash were proven hollow as a survey revealed today that most of top cricketers were ready to take pre-mature retirements to play in multi-million dollar competitions like the Indian Premier League.
Ahead of the International Cricket Council meeting in Dubai this weekend, Federation of International Cricketers Associations (FICA) conducted a survey, which disclosed 52 per cent of players were ready to end their international career for IPL or ICL stints.
FICA targetted 105 players and got responses from 64 among whom some were also found to be interested in rebel Indian Cricket League.
"It is also evident that today's player is less likely to be loyal to commitments to his home board, as cricket's employment market is freed from the power of Governing Bodies, who previously enjoyed an inequitable power base by virtue of being the 'only employer in the market'," FICA Chief Executive Tim May said in Melbourne today.
"Simply, the freeing up of the market and the lifting of the 'citizenship barriers' has resulted in more market driven values for players, and the players not surprisingly are gravitating to that market," he added.
May feared if the International Cricket Council did not create a window for IPL it could churn out all the cream from international cricket.
"The players and FICA feel very strongly that to preserve a healthy balance between 'club/franchise cricket' and international cricket, the ICC needs to create a window in its International Programming, or risk losing players permanently from the International cricket scene.
"Without such window, the international cricket product will be weakened and the possibility will then arise of the international product being a declining product in cricket's future landscape. That is a situation that we obviously want to avoid," he added. |
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