Australian players too scared to sledge Virat Kohli or Indian players due to IPL deals: Michael Clarke

Former Australian skipper Michael Clarke reckons it is due to the Indian Premier League (IPL) that Australian cricketers are scared to sledge Virat Kohli or other Indian players during bilateral series or other tournaments. Clarke is of the view that players are too afraid to sledge any of the Indian players due to the huge bucks they are bagging for participating in the IPL while adding some feel that sledging Indian players could affect their deals in the cash-rich tournament. 

Clarke further opined that over the years, not only Australia but other international teams have been scared to sledge the Indian teams just because of the financial part of the game.

Speaking on Big Sports Breakfast, Clarke said: "Everybody knows how powerful India are in regards to the financial part of the game, internationally or domestically with the IPL. 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."

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The likes of Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Marcus Stoinis, Aaron Finch, Kane Richardson, Alex Carey, Mitchell Marsh, Josh Hazlewood, Andrew Tye, Chris Green, Josh Phillipe among others Australian players who went for massive bucks and found takers in the latest IPL auction, which was held in Kolkata in December 2019. 

"Name a list of ten players and they are bidding for these Australian players to get into their IPL team," Clarke 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'. I feel like that's where Australia went through that little phase where our cricket became a little bit softer or not as hard as we're accustomed to seeing." 

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Australia went through a rough patch since the sandpaper-gate incident in Cape Town in 2018 but after a rough ride, the Baggy Green bounced back strong in the ICC World Cup 2019 and the Ashes and has been on a roll ever since then. Australia are also the host of ICC T20 World Cup 2020 and will be eyeing the coveted trophy in front of their home crowd.