Clarke finally gives in, will play in the IPL

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: August 29, 2009

commentComment     Email This Post Email This Post     Printable version

Edinburgh: After resisting the Indian Premier League’s lure for the first two seasons saying that he wanted to concentrate on his career for Australia, Aussie vice-captain Michael Clarke has said that he wants to play in the 3rd season of the cash-rich event in 2010.

Talking to reporters, the right-hander, who would lead Australia in two Twenty20 Internationals and first three of the seven ODIs against England in captain Ricky Ponting’s absence, said IPL 2010 would prove a perfect build up for next year’s Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies.

“For me, it’s about timing,” Clarke said.

“Certainly, the positive I see about the IPL is it leads into the Twenty20 world championship, so it’s very good preparation for all the guys playing in the IPL. They’ll have a lot of Twenty20 cricket going into the world championship,” he was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press.

Interestingly, IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi was so angry at Clarke, after the Australian’s withdrawal from the auction ahead of IPL II that he had famously commented saying the batsman chickened out fearing he may not find any takers.

Reminded of the incident, Clarke said, “At some stage, I definitely want to take part in the IPL. It’s been a wonderful tournament. It’s helped a lot of players. It’s given guys an opportunity to be on the big stage and put their hand up… I’d definitely like to take part in it at some stage.”

“I just need to work out when’s the right time, and hopefully Lalit will let me play, more importantly,” he added.

Tagged with: , , , , ,


WPSN comments




Related News Headlines

Cricketain Latest