More prefers ECB event to Champs League

Mumbai: Former India wicketkeeper Kiran More feels the International Cricket Council's (ICC) reluctance in sanctioning the Indian Premier League (IPL) Champions League is justified, while the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) event to be held in Dubai on a similar format deserves to go ahead as planned.

"It is the best news I have heard in a long time. The ECB is known for its straightforwardness and will not tolerate any high-handed behaviour. It believes in safeguarding interests of their county players whether they are from the ICL, the IPL or anywhere on this earth," Kiran More told Cricketnext on Friday.

"It is dictatorship on part of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to stop its players from playing for county sides featuring ICL players. What their officials don’t realize is that they are spoiling an upcoming young spinner’s (Piyush Chawla) career by preventing him from playing there while also depriving V V S Laxman and Ajit Agarkar the opportunity," added More, who is part of the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) set-up.

"It is a big loss to Indian cricket because when the same bowler (Chawla) tours England, he might find it difficult to adjust to the conditions over there which might cost our country the series itself. Whatever decision the BCCI has taken regarding this issue is not good for the game at all," he pointed out.

"Even world-class bowlers like Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan play county cricket, not because of money but for the high standard of competitiveness set by the players and the professional set-up there," he added.

Though the IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi has told the media that the Champions League was not shelved and the dates would be finalised after the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, the ICC does not want to accommodate two BCCI-backed Twenty20 events in a packed international calendar.

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