Sri Lanka board to ask Malinga to return from IPL - Malinga quits Test cricket

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Why blame players for choosing club over country? More... Why blame players for choosing club over country? The issue of loyalty is not as straightforward in cricket as in football and American sport. Ultimately it's about the players getting just reward for their talent Dileep Premachandran April 28, 2011 Club or country? Chicken or egg? Which comes first? It's a question that has been at the forefront of cricket aficionados' thoughts over the past fortnight after the hullaballoo involving Sri Lankan players in the IPL, and Chris Gayle. Because it's such an emotive subject, the shades of grey are seldom seen. Depending on where you stand, someone like Lasith Malinga is either an opportunistic mercenary or a young man messed about with by administrators while trying to do his best for himself and his family. The IPL is either the source of all evil or the best thing since bread came sliced. Those who decry it ignore how it has finally given top-level cricketers some degree of control over their own destiny. Its apologists overlook the effect it has had on the cricket economy, leaving less prosperous national associations on the verge of financial ruin if they don't toe the Indian board's line. Cricket is pretty unique in that it's one sport where national recognition opens doors to financial riches. You don't need to represent the United States to land a multi-million dollar NBA or NFL deal. Lebron James was on the cover of Sports Illustrated long before he donned the Cleveland Cavaliers' vest, and his very first contract dwarfed anything that Sachin Tendulkar or MS Dhoni have signed. His shoe deal with Nike alone was worth $90 million. In cricket, though, until the IPL came along, you were nothing without a national cap. It's possible for those playing first-class cricket in England and Australia to make a comfortable living, and the same is the case now in India with increased payments for those on the domestic circuit. But if you're an ordinary first-class pro in New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan or West Indies, chances are you won't be swanning around in a Ferrari. Even those with a national contract are unlikely to. Consider this. A year after he took four wickets in four balls at the 2007 World Cup, Malinga was denied a national contract. He had broken down months earlier and been forced to miss tours and the inaugural IPL season. Sri Lanka Cricket's decision was as unkind as cuts go. It wasn't as though they were short of funds. Soon after the 2008 Asia Cup win, officials helped themselves to significant pay hikes. The players had to make do with the $100,000 that they had been paid the previous year. The only sop was $25,000 paid as bonus to Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan and Mahela Jayawardene for "outstanding performances". Interestingly Sanath Jayasuriya, whose century helped win the Asia Cup final, wasn't deemed outstanding enough. A few months later Malinga was given a contract, a grade II one worth $60,000. In contrast, his first two seasons with the Mumbai Indians, who didn't give up on him despite injury concerns, netted him $700,000. When the franchise retained him before the player auction last January, they will have guaranteed him at least $500,000 a season. "Because of the IPL, I got a chance to come back to the national team," said Malinga on Tuesday. "After the injury, nobody looked after me and I was not offered a contract. But thanks to the IPL I didn't lose anything but I improved my cricket a lot. I'm saddened the way I was treated, but not disappointed." Money can't buy loyalty, but it does give players the security to go out and perform with minds free of worry. Contrast the attitude to Malinga with how AC Milan, Europe's second-most successful football club, treated Fernando Redondo, the talented Argentine playmaker who moved there in 2000. Redondo played just 16 times in four seasons after injuring his knee while on the treadmill. The club kept paying him £2.74 million a year until he asked for it to be suspended. They also refused to take back the house and car that they had given him. With state sides and counties largely depending on national boards to stay financially solvent, it's cricket's national associations that have performed the role that football clubs do. It was Sri Lanka Cricket that discovered Malinga and invested both time and money to ensure he could be a factor at the highest level. It's the national academies that tend to do for cricket what La Masia has done for Barcelona football. In that regard, you can understand why cricket boards are angered when a player chooses the IPL over representing his country. After all, where he is today is as much a result of their work as it is a consequence of his talent. But under the present dispensation, the national boards get decent compensation, with 10% of all IPL contracts signed going into their coffers. Just for signing no-objection certificates, Sri Lanka Cricket's account is richer by nearly half a million dollars. Is that enough? Probably not. What cricket is going through right now is a churning similar to that which football underwent in the 1950s, when the likes of Alfredo di Stefano and Omar Sivori abandoned their South American roots to make a better living in Europe's cash-rich leagues. That talent drain continues to this day. Europe's top clubs have the money and they provide a stage, the European Champions League, that's second only to the World Cup in terms of prestige. Only someone lacking ambition would pass up a chance to play there. With the IPL, things are not so clear cut. Football, regardless of whether it's for your national team or your club, is played over 90 minutes. It could even be argued that the best club sides, with their agglomeration of talent and the chance to practise and play together 10 months a year, are superior to any national team. That certainly isn't the case with Twenty20 cricket and the IPL. Given how the vast majority of players want to be part of the IPL, creating a window for it within the framework of the Future Tours Programme is the only way forward. The league is India's baby, backed by the biggest sponsors in the game, and any national board that takes it on is doomed to failure. Far better instead to listen to what your players want, and bank that 10%. Talk to the likes of Sangakkara and Daniel Vettori and they will tell you that this isn't about club or country. It's about players finally being able to take home money commensurate with their ability. When you can make as much from six weeks of IPL as you would from a few years of playing for the national side, why would you not throw your cap into the ring? And if your team owners look after you better than your board does, why would you not be loyal to them? Why should Gayle not, like you and me, honour those who honour him and disdain those who despise him, to quote the Bible? There will always be a group of people who insist that "muddied oafs and flannelled fools" are paid too much. But unlike many administrators, bankers or politicians who rob us blind, most sportsmen leave something tangible behind. Michael Jordan, who helped take athletes' salaries into the stratosphere, once said: "Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it." Malinga, for one, has done that, and instead of grudging him the rewards, we should be happy for a man who'll probably need a walking stick to get around by the time he's 50.

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Malinga wanted to resume his Test career against Australia in August but... : Law More.. Brush with the Law Chloe Saltau April 30, 2011 IN THE three weeks since Stuart Law was appointed interim coach of Sri Lanka, the Australian has gained a powerful insight into the forces affecting his players and the need to keep the island nation's influential neighbour, India, ''sweet''. In that time the captain and vice-captain have stood down, the entire selection panel has been replaced, and star fast bowler Lasith Malinga has quit Test cricket because of a chronic knee condition. Speaking about the upheaval from his base in England, Law said Malinga had previously told him he wanted to resume his Test career against Australia in August but, when told he must also make himself available for the impending tour of England, he opted instead to stay in the IPL and play only limited-overs cricket for Sri Lanka in future. The former Queensland captain, who played 54 one-day internationals and a Test for Australia, expressed sympathy for the 27-year-old with the sling-shot action, and said it was increasingly difficult for nations such as Sri Lanka, which do not have the wealth of other boards, to command constant control of their players. ''It's a tough one for the players because we're not talking about $10,000 here and there. We're talking about a million dollars and Malinga, when he bowls, he puts his body through hell, so … two more years of IPL cricket and he can put his feet up and not go through that pain again,'' Law said. ''It's disappointing that he doesn't want to play [the] longer [format cricket] but you can't make a guy who goes through hell every time he bowls a cricket ball. I can sympathise with him. I would love him to play every game for us but that's impossible, no one does that these days.'' Sri Lanka's former captains Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene will leave their IPL franchises only in time for their country's second warm-up match in England. And, in a bizarre situation, new captain Tillakaratne Dilshan wants to leave the IPL earlier to join the squad in England for the first practice game but the decision has been taken out of his hands as the Sri Lankan and Indian boards negotiate his release date. ''The IPL situation - we've got to be smart with that,'' Law said. ''India, they are big brother, we've got to look after them, we don't want to upset them. It's where a lot of the world cricket boards make a lot of their money, so we've got to keep India sweet.'' Law said that the IPL is a ''great tournament'' for the Sri Lankan players, not just financially but also ''cricket-wise'' as they can learn from different coaches and the top international players. ''You want the best for your players and the best Sri Lanka can supply to the players at this stage is nowhere near what other international players are getting. ''I think [better pay] will arrive one day but right now it is difficult to attract the players to continue to play international cricket when they can go to the IPL for six weeks and earn five years' money.'' Law, who joined Sri Lanka as an assistant to fellow Australian Trevor Bayliss in November 2009, will coach the side in England and has been shortlisted for the permanent job. He is excited about rebuilding the Sri Lankan team with an aggressive new leader in Dilshan and following the retirement of champion spinner Muthiah Muralidaran. He also can ''totally respect and understand'' the decisions of Sangakkara and Jayawardene to relinquish their leadership positions. ''Sri Lanka will go through a rebuilding phase now but the amount of talent that is yet to play international cricket at this stage is amazing,'' he said. Sri Lanka is the fourth-ranked Test nation - one place above Australia - and Law does not expect the Australian team that arrives in Colombo later in the year to look radically different from the one that lost the Ashes. He hopes to exploit the spin-friendly conditions, with Australia still searching for a frontline spinner. ''To be honest, I don't really think it [the Australian team] will change a great deal. [Ricky] Ponting's not captain but he is still one of the world's best batsmen,'' Law said. ''What they will have to confront is the conditions, the wickets we will play on and the weather.''

[Indiawin]

So he is the newest entrant to the "IPL Bash Club" :hysterical:

[b555]

sad that its all come to money now its got to be about 2 things: 1. can yyour body do it 2. you r doing it for your country!!!

[fineleg]

b555, IPL has changed the landscape with everything about money first :((

[ganeshran]

Its very hypocritical to criticise cricketers about giving importance to money when they are doing it with full integrity and not cheating. Many of us are doctors, engineers, accountants, lawyers - do we not charge money for our services? Or do we put the nation first and go and work for free in villages where it will be beneficial to most people?

[saneindian]

Law is bitter that despite being the Lankan Assistant coach for years, no IPL franchise offered him the coach's post or any other role in the IPL and instead went for rookies like Lehman, Bevan and some other state coaches like Shipperd etc.

[Karan114]

Speaking about the upheaval from his base in England, Law said Malinga had previously told him he wanted to resume his Test career against Australia in August but, when told he must also make himself available for the impending tour of England, he opted instead to stay in the IPL and play only limited-overs cricket for Sri Lanka in future.

I find this very hard to believe given that Malinga gave an interview back in January saying Test cricket was far too taxing for his body. When he played against India in two Tests last year, he said it took him two months just to recover.

[f.b.m]

Its very hypocritical to criticise cricketers about giving importance to money when they are doing it with full integrity and not cheating. Many of us are doctors, engineers, accountants, lawyers - do we not charge money for our services? Or do we put the nation first and go and work for free in villages where it will be beneficial to most people?

Yeah the self righteousness in my Sri Lankan friends is astounding. These guys would do anything for money themselves..

[Ramzz]

b555, IPL has changed the landscape with everything about money first :((

It has always been about Money...it is only coming out now because players have options and a bargaining chip against their boards. The boards in most countries have treated players without respect and now they are just scared about the loss of control over their players.

[Number]

He says : We got to be smart with the IPL, we'll have to keep big brothers(India) sweet. Now I think this is a strong statement , send all SL players back they will beat the s**t out of him in the training. haha

[Cricket Tragic]

Considering that he has played 2 tests in like 3 years and unofficially retired last year itself, I find this hard to believe. The SL board has just forced him to make it official. I don't think he would have played tests anyway. He said that it took him 2 months to recover after the 2 tests he played against India.

[Sir_Afridi]

Malinga average in mid 30s in test cricket. Decent 20/20 & ODI bowler and way overrated in tests. SL fans act like he is Asif or something.