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Rediff.com  » Cricket » Cricket Buzz: Stewart wants IPL cut-off date after Surrey lose Curran

Cricket Buzz: Stewart wants IPL cut-off date after Surrey lose Curran

April 17, 2018 16:38 IST
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Kolkata Knight Riders' Tom Curran celebrates after taking the wicket of Chennai Superkings' Shane Watson

IMAGE: Kolkata Knight Riders' Tom Curran celebrates after taking the wicket of Chennai Superkings' Shane Watson. Photograph: BCCI

Surrey director of cricket Alec Stewart wants a cut-off date for county players to join the Indian Premier League (IPL) after losing seamer Tom Curran to the Twenty20 tournament just days before the start of their championship campaign.

Curran went unsold in February's IPL auction but Kolkata Knight Riders recruited him for around $247,000 earlier this month to replace injured Australian paceman Mitchell Starc.

Yorkshire suffered a double blow with the similar late departures of David Willey and Liam Plunkett, leading county coaches to discuss the issue at Edgbaston last week.

"It's far from ideal losing Tom so late," former England captain Stewart was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

"I hope in time this will be looked at. The IPL is not going anywhere -- I fully understand players wanting to be part of it because, one, it's a good competition and, second, it helps your bank balance.

"The problem is when you get the phone calls I got for Tom, and Martyn Moxon (Yorkshire's director of cricket) got for Willey and Plunkett, your planning goes out of the window."

The readiness of county players ahead of the English season makes them prime IPL targets to replace injured players in the lucrative Twenty20 league and Stewart suggested that a fixed final recruitment date would help resolve the issue.

"All I think needs to be looked at is a cut-off, ideally a month before the championship starts," he said.

"If you get picked up in the auction, that's fine -- it's at the end of February, so that's six or seven weeks before the start of the season.

"Then everyone knows that, even if you don't get picked up in the auction, there's a three- or four-week window, but once that has gone, you can't then go and play (in the IPL)."

Stewart also demanded a redistribution of the money the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) receives for allowing its players to take part in the IPL.

"We have discovered that the ECB have been receiving 10 percent of the overall contract a player gets from IPL for a number of years and this year it is 20 percent," he said.

"Should the ECB be keeping that? Or should that money come back to the county, who are the ones who miss out?

"I personally believe all that money should come back to the county if you are not an ECB-contracted player because of the money that has been invested."

Pothas steps down as Sri Lanka fielding coach

South African Nick Pothas has stepped down as the fielding consultant of a Sri Lanka team he briefly coached until Chandika Hathurusingha was hired in December, the country's cricket board said on Tuesday.

The 44-year-old was handed the interim head coach's role last June following Graham Ford's exit and considered a contender for the permanent position before returning to his fielding role once Hathurusingha arrived.

"After two incredible years with Sri Lanka cricket, this is the right time for me to move on to other opportunities, which will allow me to spend quality time with my young family," Pothas said in a statement issued by Sri Lanka Cricket.

"It has been an honour and a privilege to be involved with Sri Lanka. It has given me the opportunity to learn and improve as a coach as well as to contribute to a very talented bunch of players. It will always hold a special place in my heart."

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Source: REUTERS
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