Ranatunga commends ICC for not giving a window for IPL in its FTP

Sri Lanka’s former Captain Arjuna Ranatunga says he is grateful for the International Cricket Council for taking a decision not to permit a window for the IPL, in its future tour programme.

Ranatunga’s commendation comes just few days after the outgoing ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat’s announcement, where he said that the world body will not consider giving a space to IPL in the Future Tours Programme.

Ranatunga speaking to News360.lk said, when looking at the issues which have taken place in the highly famous Indian Premier League, this decision by the ICC is a good one.

“We have seen in the media that issues like match fixing, player misbehavior and various other things cropping up around IPL”, said Ranatunga.

The former Lankan cricketing icon also said he is not against the T20, but he is against the way it is being misused.

“I think, IPL, BPL, SLPL and the Pakistan T20 league are all aimed at earning money” added the former Lankan skipper.

He believes, the money is earned by the business people through such leagues and not the cricket boards of the respective countries.

Ranatunga points out that since the introduction of franchised based T20 competitions, business people who were never involved in the game has got engaged, purely to earn money.

“They don’t have a clue about cricket and they teach cricketers how to play cricket”, added Ranatunga, who helped the country win its first World Cup in 1996.

He says, T20 tournaments such as IPL create two main issues for the game of cricket.

“It causes damage to the Test and the ODI games and also unwanted people getting engaged in the game” added Ranatunga.