World cricket sucks up to India, Virat Kohli to protect IPL contracts: Michael Clarke

World cricket sucks up to India, Virat Kohli to protect IPL contracts: Michael Clarke

By Web Desk
April 07, 2020

Australia’s former skipper Michael Clarke on Tuesday said that most national teams give special treatment to Indian players in general and Virat Kohli in particular, often refraining to ruffle any feathers when facing them in fear of protecting their lucrative contracts with Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises. 

"Everybody knows how powerful India are in regards to the financial part of the game, internationally or domestically with the IPL," Clarke said in a podcast named Big Sports Breakfast, 

He said that foreign players with IPL contracts were afraid of sledging Virat Kohli as it could mean losing out on big bucks.

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"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," he said.

"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'."

IPL has a history of paying top dollar to the cream of world cricket. Just at the last IPL auction, Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins broke the record for the most expensive player as the Kolkata Knight Riders dropped a hefty sum of INR155 million (PKR343m).

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