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Anil Kumble counters Harbhajan Singh's dig at BCCI over 'IPL scheduling' for T20 World Cup
Contrary to Harbhajan Singh's opinion, Anil Kumble reckoned that playing the IPL is enough to prepare the Indian players for the T20 World Cup.
Former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh admitted that the BCCI got the scheduling of the 2024 IPL season wrong, given that the T20 World Cup starts less than a week after the league final in Chennai. Harbhajan stressed the need for at least 4-5 practice games for the Indian T20 World Cup squad before they kick off their campaign on June 5 in New York, but his former teammate Anil Kumble reckons that there will be no better preparation for the ICC tournament than playing in the IPL.
Earlier this week, England players, who were named in the T20 World Cup squad, bid adieu to their respective IPL franchises to head back home in preparation for the big tournament. They are scheduled to play against Pakistan in the T20I format before they leave for the ICC event. In the wake of ECB's move, Harbhajan reckoned that BCCI could have pulled off a similar as he lamented IPL's schedule.
"I think with this IPL scheduling, it is so difficult to have everyone together to play a few matches. But yes, we have two games in America before the tournament starts," he told Hindustan Times while speaking on Star Sports Press Room Show. "Yes, I believe it would have been better for them to have 4-5 games, you know collectively playing against some top team like England or Australia in America, just to get used to those conditions. But that doesn't seem to be happening. But now, whatever small window we have, those two games, we have to make the best use of it. Going forward, it is a great suggestion. When you are playing a tournament like the World Cup or WTC, the team should play together for 10-15 days, it will be better."
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However, Kumble, who is an IPL Expert on JioCinema, reckoned that 14-17 IPL matches are enough to prepare the Indian players for the T20 World Cup. He further added that most of the Indian players, whose team did not play the IPL 2024 playoffs, will be leaving early in a bid to get acclimatised with the conditions in New York.
“With regard to the Indian players, people who are not part of the playoffs will certainly be going early, and the guys who will be playing or who will be part of the playoffs will leave immediately after the IPL. So I don't see any reason why the preparation should be different. I don't think there's any issue with that. You can't get a better sort of preparation for the World Cup than playing in an IPL where you played either 14 matches or 16 or 17. So, in that sense, you've prepared really well in this tournament in terms of any situation and under pressure you played. So it's a good sort of understanding of where your game is and going into the World Cup,” he said in response to a query from Hindustan Times.
Kumble also spoke about the England players leaving before the start of the playoffs, a move that has been criticised by quite a few veteran cricketers including Sunil Gavaskar, who called for a pay cut on those cricketers.
“People knew that they would be leaving even before the start of the IPL. So, I guess as franchises, they sort of have those backups, and you don't have a choice. I mean, the World Cup is coming up and some of the teams will certainly look to have their preparation. And that's something that each team or each country has their own approach to preparing for a big event. And England chose to pull out their players. I guess every franchise knew that these players won't be available towards the back end of the tournament, so I don't think there's any issue with that,” he said.
