Will the IPL lead to a new Kolpak?
Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower will be pushing for a say in decisions about England’s contracted players appearing in the IPL. Much fuss is still being made over the injuries to KP and Flintoff in relation to their involvement in South Africa earlier this year. Freddie sustained a new injury during the IPL, whilst KP carried his achilles throughout the tournament.
This is all very well, and I hope that they take a sensible line on this. There is no reason to stop players appearing altogether, but a line has to be drawn. The timing is also revealing, coming as it does after Flintoff has announced his Test retirement due to injury problems, and Pietersen was ruled out of the rest of the Ashes after surgery.
The ECB weren’t prepared to take the hard line, as Cricket Australia did earlier this year, by refusing permission for either of their big-name stars to take part. Presumably Strauss and Flower, at least in hindsight, will not be entirely happy about this.
But you do wonder, if a harder stance is adopted, how long it will take before a player takes legal action over restraint of trade or some such. Whilst a player could reject a central contract, they would still require a “No Objection Certificate” from the ECB before they could take part.
EU legislation probably makes this a more difficult problem to tackle for the ECB than it would for most national cricket boards.
Bosman and Kolpak are now better known for the rulings named after them than their respective sporting exploits. Will somebody else be willing to stick their neck out and take the ECB on?
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