Cricket: Intention is to give guys a break, not for them to play elsewhere: Ashley Giles on England players in remainder of IPL 2021

The Managing Director of England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Ashley Giles as said that the priority of English players would be to represent the country while adding no changes would be made to the international schedule in a bid to accommodate the remainder of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.

Giles maintained his earlier stance that ECB has not received any official requests to shift the five-Test series against India, which would allow more time for the BCCI in the September-October window to conduct the remainder of IPL 2021 in the UAE.

‘I’m not aware of anything official, any requests to shift anything. As far as we’re concerned and what we’re prepared for, the matches will be where they are. I’m not surprised there’s all sorts of speculation. Everyone wants to get their cricket in. But we’ve not received anything official and we’re cracking on,” Giles said.

Giles further said that even if some players are rested for the limited-overs tours of Bangladesh and Pakistan in September-October, that would not mean they can go and participate in IPL 2021.

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“We have a full schedule. If we go from the end of the fifth Test in September, we are set to leave for Bangladesh on September 19 or 20. We have a full schedule right through including Pakistan and wherever the T20 World Cup is,” added Giles.

“We are going to have to give some of these guys a break at some point. But the intention of giving guys a break for, say, Bangladesh, wouldn’t be for them to go and play cricket elsewhere.”

“We have to manage our schedule now, so we get our guys arriving in the best shape possible for the T20 World Cup and the Ashes,” stated Giles.

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Earlier, ECB allowed its players to play in IPL 2021 in April-May despite a Test series scheduled against New Zealand in early June as the two-Test rubber wasn’t a part of the ICC World Test Championship. However, with ECB shifting its focus to the T20 World Cup and Ashes, things might change if IPL 2021 is held in the UAE in the September-October window.

“Communication was made from Chris Silverwood to Bairstow and Buttler about what the plan was. We felt there was no need to go back on that. They’ve been spending time with their families and Jos is away for a few days at the moment. We didn’t want to drag those players out of that at the 11th hour. There was no plan to change that,” said Giles.