Australia’s best young cricketers ought to think long and hard before rushing down IPL’s yellow brick road. Naturally it is tempting go for the quick buck, or rather a quick million. Cricket is a blue-collar game hereabouts, and lots of the younger fellows are battlers. Sign on the dotted line, and overnight they can buy a house or a fancy car. Most of them, too, have agents whose only source of income is to obtain IPL contracts or lucrative sponsorship deals for their charges. Unsurprisingly, the youngsters are agog at the idea of mixing with the giants of the game. They can leap from grade cricket to batting with Sachin Tendulkar. Of course it is tempting.

That is the problem.

But the players ought to beware.

Already the lights are flashing.

Numerous IPL players have returned with dreadful injuries, rotten form or soft brains. Playing a few 20-over games might not seem much of a commitment, but bad habits can easily set in. It’s only possible to attend so many parties and emerge intact. A lot of damage can be done in that period. Although other factors were involved, Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and Muttiah Muralitharan have all struggled to recover from their first IPL campaign. Nor has much been seen of bright sparks such as Ajantha Mendis or Shaun Marsh. For that matter Ishant Sharma and Ravi Bopara have gone backwards. India cannot find any youngsters to challenge its ageing champions. None of them have progressed. Some have become front-foot swipers.

Success ought not to come too soon or too easily.

IPL suits older players on the way out and neglected cricketers anxious to make a mark and a dollar.

Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden and company are perfect fits - great cricketers unable or unwilling to spend days in the field or bowl long spells but Read more…

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