West Indies have failed to create an impact in the ongoing test series against India and former West Indian all-rounder Carl Hooper has blamed Indian Premier League for the poor show by the Caribbean team. Cooper opined that all the big West Indian stars are more interested to play the money rich T20 league of the world which is why they sideline themselves from the longest format of the game.
Talking about the impact of IPL on Windies player, Hooper said “We should have seen this coming. T20 cricket is here to stay. You got more leagues in play than what it was five years ago. It is crazy. It is going to affect us because, for most young West Indies players, the ultimate aim is to sign a contract with an IPL side. So it would have a bearing on his availability for West Indies cricket including Tests,” Hooper was quoted as saying by Indian Express.
West Indies failed to contain the Indian batsman as they reached 649/9 courtesy of hundreds by Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja.
Superstar cricketers like Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine have refused to take the central contracts and Hooper feel that they could have went on to become successful test cricketers.
“I am not saying they were finished products in the longest format but at 26-27, let’s say if Pollard played Test cricket, who knows he could have developed as a good Test cricketer.
Hooper said Shimron Hetmyer who got run-out on the score of 10 runs in the ongoing test has been one of the finds of CPL and is highly rated as a batsman. He said that IPL franchise owners will show interest in him in the next season and he would hate to lose another West Indian future prodigy to IPL.
“I am not going to judge players who choose IPL for West Indies. You cannot be upset with a guy who doesn’t want to sign a central contract as he wants to play in other leagues. It is a tough situation. Virat Kohli can stop playing today if he wants to but none of our guys can afford to do that,” said Hooper.
