Former Australia cricket captain Michael Clarke said players sucked up to India in order to protect their Indian Premier League contracts. He went on to say that Australian players, who have a reputation for sledging opponent teams, refrained from doing the same to Indian skipper Virat Kohli.
Speaking on Sky Sports Radios’ Big Sports Breakfast show, the 2015 World Cup winning captain said that Australian cricket and other teams, for a period, sucked up to India, and were even too scared to sledge Kohli and other Indian players because of the cash-rich IPL.
“Everybody knows how powerful India are in regards to the financial part of the game, internationally or domestically with the IPL,” Clarke said on the show.
Clarke said Australia went through a phase during which they went soft.
“I feel that Australian cricket, and probably every other team over a little period, went the opposite and actually sucked up to India. They were too scared to sledge Kohli or the other Indian players because they had to play with them in April.
“Name a list of 10 players and they are bidding for these Australian players to get into their IPL team. The players were like: ‘I’m not going to sledge Kohli, I want him to pick me for Bangalore so I can make my $1 million US for my six weeks’,” he said.
In the IPL 2020 auction held last year, several Australian players sealed lucrative contracts, with fast bowler Pat Cummins acquired by Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs 15.5 crore, the most expensive foreign player bought at the auction. Glenn Maxwell was bought by Kings XI Punjab for Rs 10.75 crore and Nathan Coulter-Nile was bought by Mumbai Indians for Rs 8 crore.
