West Indies legend Brian Lara on Tuesday indirectly condemned the Indian Premier League (IPL), stating that the tournament had been one of the reasons behind the poor batting performance of West Indies in the third Test against Australia.
Brian Lara Takes Subtle Dig At IPL
“We played first-class cricket and some of us even played county cricket to try to get into the West Indies team,” Lara said. “We are now using the Western East team as a stepping stone, as a stage for us to get, you know, contracts around. And that is not a fault of the player.”
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David Lloyd Blames India, Australia And England
The Caribbean team was bowled out for a humiliating 27 runs – the second-lowest score in Test cricket history. Sharing the platform on a podcast, ex-England player David Lloyd accused India, along with Australia and England, of using their dominance of world cricket as the reason why West Indies cricket is suffering.
“The big three, they take all the money. England, Australia, India take off the money. They get the big broadcast deals. You’ve got to have a more even distribution to allow West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka to complete,” said Llyod.
Massive Changes Weren’t Needed, Says Carl Hooper
Former West Indies captain Carl Hooper, meanwhile, urged structural changes after their 0-3 series whitewash at the hands of Australia on ABC Cricket.
“Cricket West Indies, I really think a few heads should roll for this because they’ve made some decisions and this is the result of those decisions,” Hooper said. “They’ve made some wholesale changes, massive changes, that I think wasn’t needed. … To make wholesale changes and then get results like this, Cricket West Indies have got to hold up their hands and be held accountable.”
West Indies 27 All Out Failure
Cricket West Indies had called for an urgent meeting after the Caribbean side suffered a shocking defeat and were all out at a mere score of 27. Australia were absolutely dominant as Scott Boland and Mitchell Starc wrecked havoc on field. Both the bowlers were exceptional on field, Scott Boland took a hattrick while Mitchell Starc took 5 wickets in just 15 balls. Starc showed his supremacy in the pink ball Test and joined an elite club of fast bowlers with 400 or more wickets.
