The coming few days will be the busiest as far as Indian cricket is concerned. India are all set to kick-off the Border Gavaskar Trophy on November 22 in Perth and by the time we reach Day 3, the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction will get underway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The mega auction is lined up for November 24 and 25 and a total of 574 players will go under the hammer.
Ricky Ponting, who will be in Australia before leaving to Saudi Arabia, has expressed unhappiness with the dates clashing, calling it the "worst possible case scenario" for him and ex-teammate Justin Langer. Ponting has been appointed as the new head coach of Punjab Kings, while Langer coaches the Lucknow Super Giant. Explaining his stance, Ponting also highlighted how this adds more pressure on the players.
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“It’s the worst possible case scenario for me and ‘JL’,” Ponting said. “We for the last couple of months felt that it was probably going to be in the gap between the Test matches. It takes all the pressure off the players from both teams, there’s a lot of players in both teams in the auction.
“So I always thought it would’ve been in that gap because it just seemed better for everybody. But I don’t know why they’ve chosen the dates they have – it might have something to do with the game. The auction actually starts on air almost immediately after the end of play. So it might be something to do with broadcast," he added.
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Ponting and Langer will be back for the day/night Test in Adelaide, which starts from December 6.
Michael Vaughan echoes similar views
Meanwhile, ex-England skipper Michael Vaughan has also expressed similar views, calling it "ridiculous". “I don’t agree with the fact that they put the IPL auction in the middle of the first Test. I think it’s ridiculous. We’ve got a nine day break in between the first and the second (Tests) why they’re putting it there when you know the players are under pressure playing in a Test match, why they’d want to sway the profile of that Test match onto an IPL auction in Saudi I’m not too sure,” he was quoted as saying to Codesports.
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