Ricky Ponting shocked with ECB's 'IPL over Country' call

Australia’s legend and former Mumbai Indians (MI) coach, Ricky Ponting has questioned England’s decision to allow their star players to play in the IPL instead of the ODI series against Ireland. Ponting admitted that England’s resolution to allow its leading limited-overs players, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, to remain in the Indian Premier League missing out on their ODI series against Ireland ‘doesn’t sit well’ with him.

Earlier in this month, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had decided to allow Stokes, Buttler and Chris Woakes to remain in India and continue their participation in the cash-rich IPL instead of representing their national team. This decision, however, raised a few eyebrows as the series against the Irish cricket team was seen as a crucial preparation for England’s Champions Trophy 2017 campaign.

Eventually, England ended up winning the series 2-0. Ponting was astonished over ECB’s call and suggested that international cricket should always remain players’ first priority. “I don’t like to see that, I’d like to think that wouldn’t happen with Australian players ever,” he said speaking to cricket.com.au.

“Thinking back through England’s history, they’ve been very protective of their players going to the IPL. They haven’t really released them at all ever, I think this is the first time they’ve ever done it, to miss international cricket. If a decision had been made six months ago that those players weren’t going to play against Ireland for some reason, then I guess you could understand it a little bit.”

“But when I was sitting there watching that one-day game and noticed these other guys are over in India playing in the IPL, it doesn’t sit that well with me. I’m a bit old-school, a bit of a traditionalist with that sort of stuff. Mainly because playing for your country is what it’s all about,” Ponting said.

Talking about its effects on team’s preparation

In his view it is for the team management to decide what is the best preparation for the team. If they opted to let their players continue in the IPL they might be assured of the roles they can play for the team heading straight into the Champions Trophy.

“It’s a hard one. What is the right preparation for the individual? But what’s the right preparation for the team? Do you want to have your team (playing) together as much as you can and working on certain roles for players? Or do England already know what Stokes can do, and what Buttler can do? To be fair, they probably do. It’s probably something that will weigh on the individuals’ minds as much as anything,” Ponting added.

He was quite harsh in calling them mercenaries of T20 cricket if the intention was to just play league cricket around the world.

“What do they want to do? Do they want to be mercenaries and play T20 cricket all over the world? Or do they want to focus on being the best player they can be for England? Yes, there’s all sorts of money up for grabs for these guys in this IPL. I’m sure they could have popped home for a week or two (to play against Ireland) and then gone back and finished the last bit of the IPL,” he said.

Both Stokes and Buttler have been in brilliant form and helped their franchises Pune and Mumbai reach the playoffs respectively. However, the duo has now been recalled by the ECB and won’t take any part in the knock-out stage of the league. Both of them are set to join their national team for the upcoming ODI series against South Africa.

The England national team will also travel to Spain for training ahead of the South Africa series.