It was the IPL that recently caused a big fuss for England players like Sunil Gavaskar and Irfan Pathan over their early exit.
With the T20 World Cup approaching soon, skipper Jos Buttler and some other English cricket team members went back home to prepare for ICC’s cricketing extravaganza, with a five-game series against Pakistan.
On one hand, Gavaskar said they should be penalized; on the other hand, Pathan told them to either play the entire tournament or not come at all.
In this situation, former England captain Michael Vaughan defended those who left early saying that country should come first and it was not wrong for them to go.
“I think that’s fair enough if you are going back to represent your country. They are playing a series against Pakistan. The England players wouldn’t have gone back if it wasn’t for the Pakistan series,” Vaughan told Cricbuzz.
“Now there is a 5 games against Pakistan, Jos and his team get together. There were lots of swaps and changes in the lead-up to the 50-over World Cup as well. They have now gone back to 5 matches, get all the squad together, work on a bit of culture, everyone playing their right roles, I think it will give them a better chance,” he added.
Several Saturdays in this year IPL had no double-headers scheduled unlike previous seasons where four games were squeezed into both Saturday and Sunday fixtures
Sometimes IPL has been arranged such that Saturday and Sunday comprise four games each weekend. But there were hardly any doubleheaders on Saturdays this time around making IPL a little bit longer
Vaughan explained how had English season does had not dragged out these conditions would not have arisen whereby players returned home earlier than expected.
“What do you mean by because it always finishes so late? I think England would have planned for that. Today (May 19) I think they would have thought it would have finished. Players would have gone back. The ones that were playing today’s final would have stayed, those weren’t, wouldn’t have disappeared and you would’ve had a full-strength squad for the 5 games (against Pakistan),” said former England captain.
Buttler (Rajasthan Royals), Liam Livingstone (Punjab Kings), Will Jacks and Reece Topley of Royal Challengers Bengaluru earlier left their respective IPL teams in order to join the English squad ahead of the T20I series against Pakistan starting on May 22.
