The Australian women cricketers will not be a part of the Indian Premier League next month because of Cricket Australia’s dispute with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, PTI reported.
The Indian board claims that its Australian counterparts are indulging in “blackmail”. Three Australian players – Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy – who would have been big draws draw in the tournament have been stopped by CA. The matches, to be held between three teams, will be held from May 6 to 11 in Jaipur.
An e-mail from Cricket Australia’s top official Belinda Clark [former skipper] in possession of indicates that stopping the trio is a “pressure tactic” to ensure that the men’s ODI series is postponed.
As per the new Future Tours Program, Australia are scheduled to play three ODIs in January 2020 – which is during the Australian summer – owing to pressure from broadcasters.
“We will be in a position to consider the request when the current issue regarding the men’s ODI series that was agreed in the FTP for late January 2020 is resolved by Rahul [BCCI CEO Rahul Johri] and Kevin [CA CEO Kevin Roberts],” Clarke wrote an e-mail to the IPL operations team.
“I understand that this is being worked through at present.”
The BCCI has lambasted CA for putting conditions on the release of women players. “If you look at the contents of Belinda’s email, it is clear that they are resorting to blackmailing tactics. How is releasing women players related to men’s series. It was agreed as per FTP and they want to back-track now,” a senior BCCI official was quoted as saying.
The BCCI’s IPL operations team had written to the CA for the release of the three players on April 4 and Clark mailed on April 5. “Since April 5, there hasn’t been any communication from CA and we had no option but to name the teams. Using women players to sort out issues in men’s cricket is in bad taste,” the official added.