Former captain Michael Clarke believes Australia went soft against India during the 2018-19 home series fearing sledging the likes of Virat Kohli would cost them lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) contracts.

India’s 2-1 triumph made them the first Asian side to win a test series in Australia who sorely missed batting mainstay Steve Smith and opener David Warner due to ball-tampering bans.

“Everybody knows how powerful India are in regards to the financial part of the game, whether that be internationally or domestically in regards to the IPL,” World Cup-winning captain Clarke said on the Big Sports Breakfast radio programme.

“I feel, Australian cricket, and probably every other team, over a little period went the opposite - actually sucked up to India.

“They were too scared to sledge Kohli or sledge the Indian players because they had to go and play with them in April.”

Kohli captains Royal Challenger Bangalore and his limited-overs deputy Rohit Sharma leads Mumbai Indians in the Twenty20 league which features several Australian cricketers.

Smith skippers Rajasthan Royals and Warner is captain of the Hyderabad franchise, but the start of this year’s tournament has been put back to April 15 due to the global coronavirus pandemic and further postponement looks inevitable.

“So the players are like, ‘well, I’m not going to sledge Kohli, I want him to pick me for Bangalore, so I can make a million U.S. (dollars) for my six weeks’,” said Clarke, who played for the IPL’s now-defunct Pune franchise in 2012.

“I sort of feel that was where Australia went through that little phase of our cricket, became a lot softer or not as hard as what we’re accustomed to seeing.”

Clarke believes sledging Kohli is probably counter-productive anyway.

“I feel some players think by winding him up, he might try and play that big shot early out of aggression or frustration,” Clarke said.

“I sort of feel Kohli is one of those players that you are better off saying nothing to and just allow him to hopefully be a little bit sleepy at the start of his innings and make a mistake.”

Australia fast bowler Pat Cummins is the IPL’s most expensive overseas buy after Kolkata Knight Riders bought him for $2.18 in December.

Hopefully we can get an IPL: Smith

Meanwhile, the world might be in lockdown due to the pandemic, but cricket players across the globe have made it clear that they would love to have an IPL this year even if not right away. And speaking to Ish Sodhi in a podcast organised by Rajasthan Royals, skipper Smith said the same.

“Plenty going on in the world at present, but hopefully we can get an IPL at some stage. The two seasons that I captained the Royals were both half seasons, Shane Watson gave me the captaincy in 2015 and then last year out of the blue I took over at the back end of the season. Looking at having a crack at it full time and the Royals have a pretty good squad,” he said.

RR teammate Jos Buttler believes its a “big shame” that the lucrative T20 tournament cannot be held at the moment due to the coronavirus outbreak. The 13th edition stands suspended till April 15 and chances of it being held in the near future are also grim.

Buttler however is hoping that IPL can be slotted later in the year. “I don’t know any more than you know about when IPL would be played or people talking about whether it can be pushed back. At the moment, everything is quite indefinite as no one knows how long it will last. So, it can’t be decided at the moment when it could or could not happen,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Buttler as saying.

“As for the stature of the tournament, it’s a massive, massive tournament. Revenue that is involved in IPL is massive. It is a very important competition to cricket and it’s a big shame that it’s not going ahead or whether it does have the way to push it in the schedule and allow it,” he added.

Agencies