Former England coach David Lloyd has opined that the Indian Premier League is disrupting the traditional schedule of international cricket. Lloyd, who was once a part of the IPL commentary panel, feels that the alarm bells should be ringing now because players are preferring IPL over international matches.
IPL 2022 is set to begin on March 26 in Mumbai and Pune, and at the same time, there will be international matches involving South Africa, Bangladesh, New Zealand and Netherlands. David Lloyd pointed out how 12 Kiwi players skipped the series against the Dutch to play IPL.
He also referred to the South African players skipping the ICC World Test Championship series against the Bangladesh cricket team as he wrote in his column for the Daily Mail:
“The alarm bells should be ringing. Already, South Africa’s full attack is not available for upcoming Tests against Bangladesh; and New Zealand have 12 men ruled out of selection. Make no mistake, the IPL is disrupting the traditional international programme.”
David Lloyd has changed his views over the IPL over the years
Back in 2010, when the IPL was only three years old, David was critical of the T20 league introduced by the BCCI. However, five years after that, he came to India to work as a commentator in the Indian Premier League. He was even a part of the commentary panel in 2018.
Now in 2022, Lloyd seems to have taken a U-turn as he wrote in his latest column that the IPL matches disrupt the international program. Although quite a few experts have commented against IPL, the biggest edition of the tournament is set to happen in 2022.
10 teams, namely Gujarat Titans, Lucknow Super Giants, Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rajasthan Royals, Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore will fight against each other to win the IPL 2022 title.
