Pataudi Criticizes Indian Cricketers For Playing in IPL with Injury, Not for Country

Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi was not amused on several counts. Present at the Oval to hand over the Pataudi Trophy, the former Indian captain was not happy with the Indian cricketers and it had much to do with injury, the IPL and the England tour.

Indian cricket

Pataudi was present to give the trophy to the winning England team who took the series with a 4-0 whitewash by completing an innings and eight runs win at the Oval, venue for the fourth Test of the India England series. While presenting the trophy was controversial enough in manner in which it was managed, Pataudi had more things India weighing on his mind.

In typical fashion, Pataudi did not have to raise his voice or make a hullabaloo and yet he made a strong point. Speaking on air after the post match presentation ceremony, Pataudi was certainly not amused by the fact that the Indian cricket team has had as many injuries as they have had.

Pataudi who previously served on the IPL governing council was quite furious about the fact that the Indian cricketers did not think twice about playing in the IPL despite carrying injuries but that they were pulling up short playing in England.

In Pataudi’s opinion, the Indian cricketers seem to be rather willing to participate in the IPL even though when it comes to national duty, they are unwilling to stretch themselves beyond the pain. There were several controversies towards the end of the IPL 4 season when several Indian cricketers either requested rest or pulled up with injuries to state their unavailability for India’s tour of the West Indies.

The tour of England thereafter has been shambolic not only by the performances but also, for the manner in which cricketers were selected without necessarily assessing their fitness to play the long haul of Test cricket and with players constantly breaking down with injuries that left the team having to cope time and again with a team in disarray.

Pataudi would not have enjoyed the fact that the trophy was going into the hands of the England cricket team as easily as India have allowed it. The former captain reckons players should be putting country before club and is perhaps wary of going as far as to say that players have become greedy for the riches of the IPL and do not seem to have quite the same appetite when representing the country when it comes to Test cricket because judging by their own injury management, they do not seem to value being fully fit for the national duty as much as they appear to give credence to turning up for every match in the IPL.

There have been several players with injuries with Zaheer Khan breaking down in the first Test at Lord’s on the very first day, recurrent injuries to Gautam Gambhir and some rather unfortunate ones, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh are copping their fair share of problems and now Ishant Sharma has been added onto that list. In that scenario where all of these players have played the IPL is beginning to bother a few of the former cricketers and Pataudi is no exception as he feels that cricketers are willing to grin through their pain for their respective IPL franchisee but go soft when it comes to playing for India.