The Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to be staged from September 19 to November 8 in the UAE. The decision to organise the cash-rich league came only after the International Cricket Council (ICC) postponed this year’s T20 World Cup, originally scheduled to be held during October-November in Australia.
The postponement of T20 World Cup till next year paved the way for BCCI to host the 13th edition of IPL in the same window.
However, this didn’t go down very well with the former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who expressed his angst and displeasure on a YouTube chat show with Geo Cricket.
The veteran pacer remarked that Asia Cup and T20 World Cup could have been played this year, but BCCI preferred IPL over international tournaments.
“Ultimately a powerful man, or a powerful cricket board they run the policy and they make sure that you suffer. T20 WC and Asia Cup could have been played this year, this was a chance for India and Pakistan to play against each other but they let it go. There are a lot of reasons behind this I don’t want to go into details,” said Akhtar.
“T20 WC could have been played but I and Rashid have said this repeatedly that they won’t let it happen, it won’t happen. IPL shouldn’t get damaged, the T20 World Cup can go to hell. India needs to save cricket immediately otherwise it won’t affect my era.”
“The quality of cricket will decline but people will continue to make millions of dollars from the sport. Even the following will reduce just like it did in Pakistan after the 2017 Champions Trophy triumph,” he added.
Akhtar also brought in the controversial ‘monkey gate’ scandal and said that Harbhajan Singh got a free pass because of the ultra-rich BCCI.
“Sometimes they get easy wickets in Melbourne, someone calls another person a monkey but gets away with it, there are threats to boycotting the series. I am asking the Australians, where are their ethics?” Akhtar said.
